Between the Poles

China and Germany lead the world in building energy efficiency

According to the 2014 scorecard released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Germany is #1 out of the 16 nations studied in the World for energy efficiency.  In Germany buildings currently account for 40 percent of power consumption and a third of CO₂ emissions. 

Energy efficiency of buildings

In September 2010 the German Government released a 40 year masterplan for revolutionizing the German energy supply that includes an aggressive plan for energy conservation focusing on reducing the energy demand from buildings.  According to the plan new insulation standards are to be introduced the government wants all buildings in Germany to be refurbished in line with new standards by 2050. It also wants to cut the national heating requirement by 20 percent by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050.  Germany is part of the EU which is very aggressive in improving the energy efficiency of buildings.  The EU Energy Saving Ordinance mandates a 25 percent reduction in energy use for all new residential and non-residential buildings built from January 1, 2016. And as of 2021, the EU’s nearly zero energy standard will apply to all new buildings.

According to the ACEEE scorecard Germany is ahead of most countries in implementing energy conservation policies and measures for buildings.  (The IEA provides a listing of German energy conservation policies and measures.) But Germany came in second to China in the ACEEE assessment of its progress in improving the energy efficiency of buildings.  The ACEEE assessement focussed on several criteria for building efficiency including energy intensity in residential buildings, energy intensity in commercial buildings, residential building codes, commercial buildings codes, building labeling, appliance and equipment labeling, and building retrofit policy.

The EIA has just released information on building energy efficiency programs in China.  Unlike many other countries, the Chinese government has focused a lot of regulatory attention on existing buildings. The overall objective of the Chinese government is to raise the level of existing buildings to satisfy regulations governing new construction. In 2011, the government implemented regulations that mandated a 10% reduction in energy consumption per square meter for commercial buildings by the end of 2015.  It also mandated a 15% reduction for commercial buildings with more than 20,000 square meters of floor area.

The Green Building Action Plan of 2013 mandates that more than 400 million square feet in residential homes in the northern heating zone must be refurbished to meet new construction standards by the end of 2015. (According to the World Bank 46% of residential floor area is in “severe cold” or “cold” regions.) In addition all commercial buildings in the same zone must be renovated to meet the standards by 2020.

Energy labeling

In 2006 China started a green building labeling initiative called Three-Star Rating Building System.  This system required buildings to be assigned a rating of one to three stars using several criteria.  These include land usage, energy and water consumption, material efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and operational management. The Three-Star Rating Building System departs from the LEED standard in assigning categories based not only on a building's design but also on the building's performance over one year of operation.

Appliance and equipment labeling

China began an energy efficiency labeling program in 1998 with a voluntary energy efficiency labeling program. Then in 2005, a mandatory energy information label was introduced that assigned appliances to categories based on their energy efficiency.  This program is similar to the European Union categorical energy label. 

Green building codes

In 1986 China issued the first building energy code in 1986 for residential buildings in the northern heating zone. These regulations mandated a 30% reduction in space heating energy consumption compared with 1980 reference buildings. For each of China's four climate zones (severe cold or cold climate, hot summer/cold winter, and hot summer/warm winter), there are three energy codes for residential buildings.   There is one code for commercial buildings. Regulations are mandatory except in rural area where residential energy codes are voluntary.

Even with these regulations, from 1998 to 2012 energy consumption of buildings in China grew by about 7.7% per year.  This is ascribed to rapid economic development and the rapid rise in personal incomes in China during this period allowing people to acquire and use more appliances.  In addition China's buildings are inefficient compared to developed countries.  It is estimated that buildings in China use 2-3x more energy per square meter for heating than buildings in comparable temperature zones in Europe or the US.  Furthermore thermal comfort is significantly lower in China.

Climate justice: India commits to reducing emissions intensity by a third by 2030

India has just released its commitments (INDC) to reducing emissions prior to the Paris COP meeting.  India houses 30% of the world's poor (363 million people) and 24% of the global population without access to electricity (304 million).  The challenge for India is tackling climate change while at the same time improving the standard of living of its third of a billion poor.

On a per capita basis India is barely on the same chart as the U.S. and Canada.  Depending on what is included in the calculation, India is the world's third or sixth largest emitter.  On a per capita basis India is 137th.  Per capita emissions in the US in 2011 were 4.5 tonnes of carbon, while India's were 0.45 tonnes, 1/10 of U.S per capita emissions. 

On a per capita basis electric power usage is also extremely low in India.  Indian per capita electricity consumption reached 1010 kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2014-15.  In comparison, China has a per capita consumption of 4,000 kWh and developed nations average about 15,000 kWh per capita.

India is taking climate change seriously.  A year or two ago India announced a voluntary goal of reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 20–25% by 2020 compared to 2005 levels.  Despite having no obligations per the Convention (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), a number of policy measures were initiated to achieve this goal. India's emission intensity per unit of GDP has decreased by 12% between 2005 and 2010. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in its Emission Gap Report 2014 recognized India as one of the countries on course to achieving its voluntary goal.  The energy intensity of the economy has decreased from 18.16 goe (grams of oil equivalent) per Rupee of GDP in 2005 to 15.02 goe per Rupee GDP in 2012, a decline of 2.5% per annum.

In its just released Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for the period 2021 to 2030, India has committed to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.  Even more impressively, it has committed to achieving 40 % cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources (renewables and nuclear) by 2030.  It also committed to creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

A detailed estimate of the cost of India's climate change program has not yet been finalized, but it is recognized that significant international resources will be required to achieve its goals. The amount will depend on the gap between the actual cost of the implementation of India's commitment in the INDC and what can be allocated from India's domestic sources. A preliminary estimate suggests that at least US$ 2.5 trillion (at 2014-15 prices) will be required for meeting India's climate change actions between now and 2030.

One of the things India is doing to help achieve both emissions reduction and improving the standard of living of its poorest citizens is developing 100 smart cities (under the Smart Cities Mission).  These next generation cities will provide core infrastructure and a decent quality of life to its citizens by building a clean and sustainable environment. Smart solutions like recycling and reuse of waste, use of renewables, protection of sensitive natural environment will be incorporated to make these cities climate resilient.

The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) is a new urban renewal mission launched by the Government of India for 500 cities with the objective of ensuring basic infrastructure services such as water supply, sewerage, storm water drains, transport and development of green spaces and parks by adopting climate resilient and energy efficient policies and regulations.

The Indian Government has recently launched the Clean India Mission with the objective of making the country clean and litter free by applying modern solid waste management in about 4041 towns covering a population of 306 million. It includes constructing 10.4 million household toilets and half a million community and public toilets.

Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) are being introduced across India. The first two corridors are the 1520 km long Mumbai-Delhi (Western Dedicated Freight Corridor) and the 1856 km long Ludhiana-Dankuni (Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor). The projects are expected to reduce emissions by about 457 million ton CO2 over a 30 year period.

Delhi Metro is India’s first municipal rail project to earn carbon credits. Delhi Metro has already installed 9 solar power generation facilities and plans to increase their number.

India has recently formulated a Green Highways (Plantation & Maintenance) Policy to develop 140,000 km long “tree-line” with plantation along both sides of national highways.

In India forest and tree cover has increased in recent years as a result of national policies for the conservation and sustainable management of forests.  Forests and tree cover has increased from 23.4% in 2005 to 24% of India's geographical area in 2013.  The Indian Government's long term goal is to bring 33% of its geographical area under forest cover.  India has improved the carbon stock in its forest by about 5%, from 6,621.5 million tonnes in 2005 to 6,941 million tonnes in 2013.

How Vancouver became the world's fourth greenest city

According to the annual ranking by the Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) Vancouver is the world's fourth greenest city.  The most recent GGEI analysis covers 60 countries and 70 cities. It tracks how investors rank the appeal of cities and countries as markets for green investment and it provides a global measure of performance in key efficiency sectors, including buildings, transport, tourism and energy.  It also integrates environment & natural capital measuring perceptions and performance in environmental areas like air quality, water, forests and agriculture.  According to the GGEI the top three greenest cities are Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Stockholm.  The countries corresponding to these cities (Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden) also rank high, in the top 5 country rankings.  Canada is 12th. The Nordic cities have achieved their high standing with the help of their respective national governments, whereas Vancouver has achieved its high green ranking on its own with little help from the federal government.

How did Vancouver do this ?

I have blogged on several occasions about geospatial developments at the City of Vancouver.  Vanmap, which is the City's geospatial portal, was an early development that has supported a number of the City's green initiatives.  Vancouver was one of the first cities that made its geospatial and other data open and free.

Yesterday at Ottawa's City Hall,  Andrea Reimer, Vancouver's Deputy Mayor, described in a fascinating presentation how Vancouver achieved its high GGEI ranking and its plans to rise even higher to become the world's greenest city by 2020.  In addition the City has recently committed to running 100% on renewable energy by 2035. This means only green energy sources for electricity, heating and cooling and transportation.

This all started about a decade ago, when a public consultation about greening the city attracted an incredible 2300 people.  The enthusiastic response was unexpected.  It cost participants ten dollars and the organizers were expecting something on the order of a few hundred people.  It turned out that they had to change the venue twice to accommodate everyone.  The mega response clearly showed a tremendous interest in green by Vancouver's citizens.  From this beginning Vancouver's greenest city initiative has continued to be a grass roots movement supported by the City government.

The City started off with some quick start projects which had high visibility and were inexpensive.  These included separated bicycle lanes, provision for organic waste (food scraps), a deconstruction bylaw, drinking water stations, community gardens, urban commercial farms, green buildings, city power utility that generated electricity by burning sewage and waste, commercial car sharing, and an urban forest initiative. 

The City developed the Greenest City Action Plan (GCAP) which focussed on 10 goal areas addressing three overarching areas of focus; zero carbon, zero waste and healthy ecosystems. The 10 goal areas were arrived at by a process of public consultation.

The Greenest City Action Plan includes commitments to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions, both from City operations and the community; generate 100 per cent of electricity from renewable resources; and implement the greenest building codes in North America. This commitment has helped stimulated the local green economy.  5% of all jobs in Vancouver are green and Vancouver is among the top 10 green technology clusters.  World-leading companies such as Westport Inovations (advanced natural gas engine-maker), General Fusion (nuclear fusion), Ballard Power Systems (hydrogen fuel cells) and Saltworks Technologies (waste water remediation) are based in Vancouver.  In Vancouver's case economic development and greening the city have gone hand in hand.

The results of the greenest city initiative to date are impressive; for example, 8% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 18% reduction in waste going to landfills or incinerators, 18% reduction in water use per capita, 19% increase in jobs in the green sector, 30% increase in food assets, and 10% increase in trips by bicycle, on foot or using public transit.

Vancouver's greenest city initiative is an amazing story with concrete measurable achievements.  As David Chernushenko, Ottawa City councilman,  said in his comments after Andrea's presentation, there is no reason from a technology perspective that other cities such as Ottawa cannot follow in Vancouver's footsteps  with their own solutions reflecting their unique environment.  But the key ingredient that enabled Vancouver's green revolution is broad public participation, which Vancouver had right from the beginning.

EPRI's Smart Grid Demonstration Project reveals value of volt-var control

Conservation voltage reduction (CVR) or volt-var is an approach to demand response (DR) and energy efficiency (EE) that can provide major benefits without significant alterations to the power distribution system,  unlike other DR/EE approaches.  Volt-var is used to reduce demand and energy consumption during peak load when electricity prices are inflated and demand may exceed the available energy while maintaining customer voltage power quality according to tolerances mandated by the regulator to protect consumer and utility devices.  Peak demand can be reduced typically by 2 to 4 %.  The business benefits are a greater percentage of energy delivered to paying customers, reduced investment in peaking generation plants or in buying power from generators at peak market prices, and a reduction in the environmental impact of energy delivery (reduced emissions).

For the past seven years the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has been leading a smart grid demonstration project initiative that includes regional demonstrations and supporting research focusing on smart grid activities related to integration of distributed energy resources (DER) including distributed generation, storage, renewables, and demand response technology. A number of well-known electric power utilities have participated in this program by developing and reporting on smart grid demonstration projects.

1. AEP Smart Grid Demonstration
2. Con Edison Smart Grid Demonstration
3. Duke Energy Smart Grid Demonstration
4. EDF Smart Grid Demonstration
5. Ergon Energy EPRI Smart Grid Demonstration
6. ESB Smart Grid Demonstration
7. Exelon (ComEd/PECO) Smart Grid Demonstration
8. Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) Smart Grid Demonstration Project
9. FirstEnergy Smart Grid Demonstration
10. Hydro Quebec Smart Grid Demonstration
11. KCP&L Smart Grid Demonstration
12. PNM Smart Grid Demonstration
13. Sacramento Municipal Utility District Smart Grid Demonstration     
14. Southern California Edison Smart Grid Demonstration
15. Southern Company Smart Grid Demonstration

As an example, AEP's smart grid demonstration project is based on a 10,000 customer pilot that includes smart meters, communications, end-use tariffs and controls, and distribution automation and volt/var control. It integrates other distributed and end-use technologies that are being evaluated by AEP including four MW scale sodium sulfur battery installations, two 70-kW roof-top photovoltaic systems, a new 5.7 kW concentrating solar technology, three 60 kW natural gas-fired reciprocating engines capable of combined heat and power generation, two plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, a large air conditioning system, two 10 kW wind turbines, and several 25 kW community energy storage systems (CES).

Currently a significant amount (about 10 %) of electric energy produced by power plants is lost during transmission and distribution to consumers. About 40 % of this total loss occurs on the distribution network. 

In a recent blog, Jared Green, Project Manager for EPRI's Smart Grid Demonstration Initiative reported a surprising finding from the Initiative.  Through the Smart Grid Demonstration Initiative EPRI found that volt-var control was was one of the most effective technologies in reducing energy demand. EPRI reported that most of the utilities that ran demonstration projects had already deployed or were deploying volt-var technologies to optimize their distribution grids. Results from the demonstration projects showed that a significant reduction in energy demand could be  achieved. EPRI's analyses showed that for each 1 %  reduction in voltage a corresponding 0.4-0.7 % reduction in energy demand was achieved. 

For utilities that used volt-var control for targeted demand reduction, volt-var can reduce peak demand as well.  Duke Energy, for example, reported reducing peak demand by about two hundred megawatts (MW) during the 2014 cold period in the Eastern U.S.  It has been estimated that in the U.S. with every one percent reduction in peak demand there would be a reduced need to build a 7,900 MW power plant.

Even greater control and reduced risk can be achieved by Integrating volt-var with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and GIS.  Volt-var/AMI/GIS provides greater precision in managing voltage reduction. At Distributech 2014, Tantalus reported using GIS is to produce voltage maps. Voltages reported by smart meters can be mapped geographically in real-time across the entire distribution network in the form of isovolt maps. This makes it possible to rapidly identify areas of low voltage and correct them in real time.

New York State moves toward Utility 2.0

The New York Public Utility Commission is moving the New York state utility industry toward a radical refinition of utilities as we have known them over the past hundred years since Tesla and Edison created the electric power industry.  In the future in New York state the utility industry may be comprised of distributed system platform (DSP) providers, basically providing the grid but not directly selling energy, and and energy market with many energy providers including bulk power generators and many distributed energy generators, you and me with rooftop solar panels.

Currently the grid is comprised of large, central power plants interconnected via transmission lines and distribution networks that feed power to customers. But this is beginning to change with the rise of distributed energy resources (DER) such as small natural gas-fueled generators, combined heat and power plants, electricity storage, and especially solar photovoltaics (PV) on rooftops and in larger arrays connected to the distribution system.  DER already has had a significant impact on the operation of the electric power grid and its role will undoubtedly become even more important in the future. 

Solar power is growing rapidly.  4.2 GW of solar power was added in 2013 in the U.S.  It is not unreasonable to expect reaching 20GW of solar and a million installations in the near future.  This proliferation of solar is driven primarily by customers wanting choice and by solar PV becoming very economical.  For the first time in 100 years companies like SolarCity are providing consumers with a competitive alternative to the local power company.  This is disruptive for the traditional utility business model.   Many utilities are aleady trying to adapt to this new world, for example by utility-provided solar power at Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Assn.

In the traditional utility model, if you compare variable and fixed costs with fixed and variable revenue, there is a mismatch.  This translates into a revenue shortfall or unrecovered cost when you compare a non-solar customer's with a solar customer's annual bill.  The problem is not technology, it is the current utility business model and in the utility industry in the U.S. there is an increasing recognition that it has to change.

In Maryland earlier this year in response to a recommendation from the Governor’s Task Force on Grid Resiliency to “scope out a Utility 2.0 pilot proposal", the Energy Future Coalition (EFC) prepared recommendations for a smart grid pilot project that would address key business objectives including a regulatory framework for the smart grid and a new utility business model that would keep utilities financially viable even as they delivered less electric power.  EFC's key recommendation is a new utility business model that would decouple utility revenue from selling electric power.

Reforming the Energy Vision in New York State

New York has gone a step further.  A Straw Proposal submitted by New York Department of Public Services (DPS) staff in its capacity as adviser to the Public Service Commission (PSC) proposes increasing the use and coordination of distributed energy resources(DER) via markets operated through a distributed system platform (DSP). Fundamentally this means that DSPs are not in the business of directly selling power themselves (unlike today's utilities), but create and maintain the market and infrastructure for the sale and distribution of electricity produced by the wholesale market (bulk generation) and thousands of DER generators.  In the Straw Proposal DER is used to describe a wide variety of distributed energy resources, including end-use energy efficiency, demand response, distributed storage, and  distributed generation. 

Earlier this year New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo asked the New York Public Service Commission to fundamentally shift utility regulation to meet the needs of a more distributed, consumer-focused energy system.  In April 2014, the Commission issued an Order Instituting Proceeding for Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) which proposed a platform to transform New York’s electric industry, for both regulated and non-regulated entities, with the objective of creating market-based products and services that would drive an increasingly efficient, clean, reliable, and customer-oriented industry.  Regulatory reform would enable coordination of a wide range of distributed energy resources  to manage load, optimize system operations, and enable clean distributed power generation.  New and existing  markets and tariffs would be developed to empower customers to optimize their energy usage and reduce electric bills, while stimulating innovation and new products. 

The Straw Proposal supports the central vision of REV, that increasing distributed energy resources(DER) via markets operated through a distributed system platform (DSP) is achievable and offers substantial customer benefits.  The proposal found there is large potential for the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) into the New York electricity market, via a Distributed System Platform (DSP) framework.  The integration of DER offers customers the opportunity to manage their usage and reduce their bills while at the same time creating important system and societal benefits such as increased system efficiency and reduction of carbon emissions. (The DPS Staff was assisted in preparing this proposal by Rocky Mountain Institute, the Regulatory Assistance Project, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. )

Distributed System Platform

The foundation for Utility 2.0 in New York is the distributed system platform.  The definition of DSP used by the DPS staff is an "intelligent network platform that will provide safe, reliable and efficient electric services by integrating diverse resources to meet customers’ and society’s evolving needs. The DSP fosters broad market activity that monetizes system and social values, by enabling active customer and third party engagement that is aligned with the wholesale market and bulk power system."

The DSP provides basic functions including market operations, grid operations, and integrated system planning. 

• The DSP will enable participation by DER service providers in a transparent, open market.  It will also  create an open platform for new energy products and service delivery by third parties and energy suppliers to consumers.
• The DSP will need to integrate new market operation functions with both utilities’ existing grid operations and advanced “smart grid” capabilities.  The distributed grid will facilitate deployment of DERs, two-way power flows, advanced communications, distribution system monitoring and management systems, and  automated balancing of energy sources and loads. This is intended to lower peak demand on the bulk power system, increase reliability and manage investment needs of the distribution system.
• The DSP will  the require modernization of power distribution systems.  In the future distribution systems will need to operate under conditions very different from those of today.  Modernization of distribution systems must meet and balance important policy objectives such as system reliability and resiliency, customer empowerment, consumer protection, system efficiencies, cost-effectiveness, competitive markets, energy efficiency, power quality, fuel diversity, and responsible environmental stewardship.

Implementing the DSP

Currently, power distribution utilities deliver electricity services directly to end-use residential, commercial and industrial customers.  The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) operates the transmission network and manages wholesale electricity markets.  Distribution utilities construct, maintain and operate distribution system infrastructure and assets.  A growing number of customers are engaged in distributed generation, for example, rooftop solar.   There are demand response and energy efficiency programs sometimes run by the utilities themselves, sometime by other agencies.

The Straw Proposal recommends that New York's existing distribution utilities, such as Consolidated Edison, National Grid, and New York State Electric and Gas, serve as the DSPs. This would entail New York's utilities focusing on energy distribution (the grid), market-creation and other electric services but getting out of the business of direct energy sales. 

Under the REV vision, the DSPs will responsible for creating a retail energy market which includes both the wholesale energy market and the growing DER markets - you and me with our rooftop panels.

Utility grid operations divisions will continue to be responsible for distribution system planning across the electric network, including the distribution network and connections to the bulk power system.

The NYISO will continue planning for bulk system upgrades, bulk generation forecasts, and other service needs.

Customers will become participants in the management and optimization of the electric system through wide-scale adoption of DER products.  For larger customers this could involve actively managing energy usage and generation.  For smaller customers automatic technologies and controls could optimize their usage patterns.  DER service providers could become aggregators between customers and the DSP.

The Public Services Commission's role will be to maintain a critical oversight of the market.  This will include guidance and processes for market rule making, approving investment plans and rate designs by regulated utilities, and reviewing the activities of ESCOs (energy suppliers), third-party service providers, and utilities for compliance with market rules.

Information exchange

One of  the important features of the Straw Man proposal is an information exchange.  Since customer electric power usage data can reveal opportunities for DER investment and development of innovative products and services such as consumer apps, the Straw Man proposes a bi-directional electricity data  information exchange involving customer usage data from smart meters and data from energy generating installations on both sides of the meter.  The data exchange is intended to help with monitoring the distribution system, identifying opportunities for DER products and services tied directly to customer data, and to support the development of innovative DER products and services.  Customers would have the option to opt out of the data exchange program.

Privacy

Customers would also be able to access to their own energy usage data in a standard format.  In addition, customers would be able to authorize that their energy usage data be provided to third-parties such as DER providers, to enable providers to develop and offer products and services that are tailored to the customer’s specific energy patterns and needs.   New tools, often apps running on hand-held devices, are being developed to help energy consumers understand the alternatives in purchasing electricity from a third party provider, installing solar PV on their roof, and other energy-related services.

FERC Order 745 vacated: negawatt does not equal a megawatt

Demand response programs involve paying power consumers not to use power at certain times.  Reducing peak load can save consumers money by avoiding the use of or even construction of "peakers", generation facilities that are very expensive to run and that are only used at times of peak load.  If I remember correctly, something like 15% of US generation capacity is only used 5% of the time.  Demand response programs are very common in parts of Europe including Switzerland and Germany where they have been in wide use for at least ten years to reduce peak load and smooth out the diurnal load curve.

In March 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Order No. 745, ruled that demand response, paying for reducing power demand, must be compensated at the same rate as power generation, all other things being equal.  In other words, compensation for saving a megawatt-hr (negawatt) is the same as for generating a megawatt-hr.

In May 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. vacated FERC’s Order 745 stating that FERC overstepped its jurisdiction and that the decision about the compensation demand response providers  must receive should lie with the states.  This means that a negawatt does not necessarily equal a megawatt.

Integrated solar PV, demand response and energy storage in a virtual power plant enables greater consumer control

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has published a fascinating analysis of the economics of leaving the grid.  The central thesis is that solar PV and electricity storage enables consumers to leave the grid completely. 

Solar PV has already reached grid parity in about 10% of the U.S. and declining PV prices suggest that this trend will continue.  However, without the ability to store electric power, consumers with rooftop PV still require the grid for nights and cloudy days.

The development of combined solar PV and batteries from Tesla and others promises to make solar + storage accessible for increasing numbers of consumers.  These consumers could form their own microgrid, either by themselves or with their neighbours and disconnect from the grid.  Alternatively they could become a source of dispatchable power and become an energy provider.  Increasingly they could find that either of these options is economically advantageous.  This has serious implications for local utilities because if this trend develops it could seriously erode the traditional utility revenue base.   It could also lead to a completely decentralized grid comprised of many microgrids.  From an operations perspective it increases the complexity of managing the grid compared to the centralized model in use today.

Jon Wellinghof, previous chairman of FERC, thinks that the writing is on the wall and it is being driven by customers wanting more control of their energy. He said

"Advances in technology and the desire we are seeing at the consumer level to have control and the ability to know that they can ensure the reliability of their system within their home, business, microgrid or their community. People are going to continue to drive towards having these kinds of technologies available to them. And once that happens through the technologies and the entrepreneurial spirit we are seeing with these companies coming in, I just don't see how we can continue with the same model we have had for the last 100 or 150 years."

Over the past decade,distributed generation, especially solar photovoltaic (PV),  consumer demand response programs, and other flexible distributed resources of electric power has grown dramatically.  Until now, with a few exceptions such as Germany and Hawaii, distributed intermittent resources have represented a relatively small proportion of total power generation.  However, as we face the prospect of scaling the use of flexible distributed energy resources including affordable energy storage batteries, attention is focussing in many jurisdictions not only on the economics of distributed energy, but also on the control system that will balance intermittent micro-generation resources and consumer demand and the rapid evolution of new consumer devices, aka the Internet of Things.  This has led to the concept of transactive energy.

Transactive energy refers to the combination of economic and control techniques to improve grid reliability and efficiency. These techniques may also be used to optimize operations within a customer’s facility.  The Department of Energy has supported the GridWise Architecture Council in developing a conceptual framework for developing architectures, and designing solutions related to transactive energy.

A virtual power plant (VPP) is a cluster of distributed generation installations and demand response programs which are collectively run by a central control entity.  VPPs rely on existing utility grid networks to provide electricity supply and demand services for a customer. VPPs are intended to add value for both the end user and the distribution utility.  As a practical application of transactive energy concepts, virtual power plants represent a way of integrating technologies including demand response, distributed generation systems, and advanced energy storage into a network supporting sophisticated planning, scheduling, and bidding of DER-based services.

For example, RWE Deutschland AG and Siemens carried out a trial project with hydro power plants, combined heat and power units and emergency power systems. The pilot project demonstrated the technical and economic deployment feasibility of virtual power plants. Since February 2012, the electricity produced by RWE's virtual power plant is traded on the Energy Exchange (EEX) in Leipzig.

A recent report from Navigant Research forecasts that total annual virtual power plant vendor revenue will grow from $1.1 billion in 2014 to $5.3 billion in 2023.

GeoEnergy at GWF2014: Geospatial becoming foundational in the electric power industry

At Geospatial World Forum 2014 in Geneva this year the GeoEnergy track included 15 presentations. The presentations covered a broad range of topics, but all represent examples of how geospatial data and technology are becoming increasingly a core technology for the modern smart grid.  The presentations are available here.  Photos are available here.

Context for geospatial in the global electric power utility industry

As Editor-Building and Energy with Geospatial Media and Communications I was the Chair for the track.  I provided a short introductory presentation to provide context for the presentations.

Energy demand is projected by the International Energy Agency to increase by a third by 2035, driven primarily by China through 2020, then by India.  To enable to electric power grid to accomodate distributed renewable resources, to increase its resilience and to support the rapidly growing Internet of Things, countries around the globe are migrating their electric power infrastructure to smart grid technology.  It is estimated that the global smart grid market is growing about 8% annually and it is projected that the cumulative value of the smart grid market will exceed $400 billion by 2020.

Currently geospatial data and technology are used tactically by electric power utilities for many purposes including asset management, outage management, vegetation management, disaster management, renewable energy facility siting, universal electrification planning, energy density mapping, and other applications.  New geospatial data acquisition technology such as LiDAR, oblique imagery, high resolution aerial photogrametry, and ground penetrating radar are being used by utilities for a variety of purposed ranging from improving productivity by bringing the field into the office, transmission line siting, vegetation management for transmission lines, encroachment detection, and estimating the solar PV potential of towns and cities.  

The smart grid is expected to fundamentally change the role of geospatial data and technology in electric power utilities from tactical to strategic. According to a recent report from Navigant Research “The smart grid is all about situation awareness and effective anticipation of and response to events that might disrupt the performance of the power grid. Since spatial data underlies everything an electric utility does, GIS is the only foundational view that can potentially link every operational activity of an electric utility including design and construction, asset management, workforce management, and outage management as well as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), distribution management systems (DMSs), renewables, and strategy planning.”

Preliminary results from global utility survey

Preliminary results from Geospatial Media's survey of the global electric power industry were also presented.  The survey currently includes North American, African, Asian and European electric power companies.  

Some of the highlights of the survey so far are;

• 80 % of respondents are using GIS for asset management. Interestingly in light of the increased role for GIS motivated by the smart grid, almost a quarter are using GIS for strategic planning.  For 28% of the companies surveyed strategic priorities was the most important factors motivating the adoption of GIS.
• 92% of the companies surveyed reported that productivity and efficiency were an important benefit realized by implementing GIS. 
• Not surprisingly given the dramatically greater data volumes projected for the smart grid, the most pressing data-related challenges are the volume of data (32%), data compatibility/interoperability  (28%), and data quality/completeness (28%).
• From a geospatial capacity perspective 37% of respondents reported that their greatest operational challenge is lack of geospatial expertise.  A further 21% reported no clear GIS strategy.  At the Indian Geospatial Forum, I talked with an Indian utility that had a GIS group with some 50 staff in the field and about 20 staff in the office.  None of these people had a formal GIS/Geospatial background - they were all electric power engineers and skilled trades.  I suspect this is not atypical of utilities.  Reaching these people represents a major challenge for the geospatial industry.

GEO's Contribution to the Achievement of International Energy Goals

Georgios Sarantakos, Expert on Sustainability and Energy, GEO Secretariat, Switzerland

The Energy Programme team of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) consists of scientists from around the globe that work together in order to address specific needs of decision makers at multiple levels. This presentation provides the audience with an overview of how the GEO Energy Team contributes to the achievement of international energy targets and concrete examples at different sectors and scales.

From Earth Observation in GEOSS and GMES to the IRENA Global Atlas for Renewable Energies

Carsten Hoyer-Klick, Head of Department, Systems Analysis & Technology Assessment, DLR, Germany
Thomas Wanderer, Research Associate, German Aerospace Center, Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, Systems Analysis & Technology Assessment
Nicholas Fichaux
IRENA, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi

The Global Atlas for Renewable Energy will join several ongoing activities on global resource mappings starting from solar and wind energy and collection of socio-economic and policy data to develop a central portal for accessing information related to renewable energy resources. Averaged resource data (annual and monthly for solar and wind climate statistics) will be available free of charge to foster solar and wind energy development on a global scale. The portal has a very flexible  architecture based on the standards of GEOSS. It is able to discover and view renewable resource data within the GEOSS framework and has the ability to incorporate OGC compatible webprocessing services for further processing and analysis of the data. A few application examples are already within the portal. The portal development was supported by two European projects (EnerGEO and Endorse) which are part of the EU GMES programme.

Satellite-based Nowcasting for Distribution Grids

Holger Ruf, Research Coordinator, Ulm, Germany

The research at IEA deals with decentralized energy systems, process data management and electric drives. In close cooperation with the local utility SWU two test areas and one project house in Ulm were defined for the research of smart grid technologies as well as grid planning and operation issues with high shares of photovoltaic systems. In the “Smart Grid Ulm” project the behavior of the distribution grid is being simulated under the impact of increasing penetration of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems.  The simulation is based on the results of a roof potential analysis and the measurement results of live test sites.

Exchanging geographical information to prevent excavation damage to cables and pipelines in the Netherlands; a use case of INSPIRE: Utility Services

A.L.M. (Ad) van Houtum, Advisor Product and Process Innovations, Kadaster, The Netherlands

Ad van Houtum of the Dutch Kadaster, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, gave an overview of KLIC-WIN, which is an adaptation of KLIC-Online to meet the future needs of the industry a as well as to be compliant with the national WION legislation and the European INSPIRE Directive.  One of the 34 themes of the INSPIRE standards initiative concerns Utility Services (INSPIRE-US), which obligates public network operators to make their data available online through viewing and download services. INSPIRE-US (Annex III Sub-theme 6a Utility Services) is obligatory for 80% of Dutch network operators.  There is a strict roadmap for implementing the directive and there are also requirements for responsiveness and availability.  The stakeholders (ministries, Kadaster, network operators, and excavators) have agreed and decided to adapt the existing KLIC-Online system to satisfy both WION and the INSPIRE-US requirements.  More about this very interesting presentation can be found here.

The Role of GIS in a Modern Utility

Theo Laughner, Tennessee Valley Authority, USA

Utilities around the world are deploying infrastructure to modernize operations which will enable the connection of distributed, renewable resources. However, in the new operational paradigm situational awareness is critical. Historically, geographic information systems have been employed in the utility as part of the design and construction phases of asset lifecycle. New GIS technologies will bring the maps out of the design department and into operations. This presentation shows the many uses of GIS in utilities today and serves to provoke thoughts about how GIS can be used in the future.

Geospatial Data in a Modern-day Electricity System

Artur Brei, Head of Graphic Data Processing, UZ (Unterfrnkische berlandzentrale eG)

New wind farms and huge photovoltaic facilities have a massive impact on Germany’s power grid. The ÜZ in Lülsfeld is a medium sized utility company in Northern Bavaria. We operate a typical regional distribution network in Germany - a large area with many little towns and villages and very much place for renewable plants. In 2013 our electricity turnover was 497 million kWh in total and the renewables had a share of more than 285 million kWh which is more than 50% of the electricity turnover.  To manage distributed renewable generation we have to invest three times as much than before 2009. And all that work has to be executed with the same number of employees. GIS is our basic element for design, as-built documentation, operation-, maintaining-, project- and process-management of all our technical assets.

One Oracle Database handles this complex asset data management including all spatial geographical data and is also still flexible enough to meet challenges like adding renewables to the data model. The system is easy to use and it’s also not difficult to connect with other data systems like SAP, customer account system and so on. This is the reason why everybody in our company works with GIS – the most of them are writing data as well.

One key point of our GIS application is to use more graphical shaping/map of one technical asset – as-built map, management plan for low voltage, medium voltage and so on. So the operating team can directly change fuses, set switches and always knows about load capacity in the low voltage network. This is also an important component of “Smart Grid” in the near future for us.

Smart Meters and CityGML for Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Piergiorgio Cipriano, GI/SDI Project Manager, Sinergis, Italy

The residential sector alone represents 13% of the total delivered energy consumption.  There is a need to detail the estimation of energy performances at building level, with open and interoperable geodata together with information from smart metering systems. This scenario is part of the Sunshine project (Smart UrbaN ServIces for Higher eNergy Efficiency), a 3-years R&D project started in 2013 and co-funded by the European Commission. Its main purpose is to deliver an extensible open toolkit of smart services for energy assessment of buildings at urban scale, to facilitate the assessment of consumption in future high-energy efficiency buildings. CityGML is the data model chosen for implementing 3D buildings: a new “Energy” Application Domain  Extension (ADE) will be defined in order to describe the energy-related properties of buildings, starting from the existing GeoBIM ADE.  Data for the real consumption of energy (heating/cooling) will be provided by smart meters via the Green Button standard - these data will be used to compute the operational energy certification of buildings, to improve performances and reduce costs.   More about this SUNSHINE's standards-based approach to energy modeling for entire urban environments can be found here.

A smart approach for the smart grid: Power line corridor data collection with airborne LiDAR technology

Wei Zhang, Senior Technical Manager Jiantong

LiDAR is widely used for scanning transmission lines for a number of applications including vegetation management.  Automating this process requires being able to identify and extract features of the power transmission system including pylons, insulators, cables, and other equipment.  In this talk a methodology based on a library of known equipment types is reported.  Some applications using the resulting model for analysis are presented.

Mapping Solar Potential of West India : a GIS based analysis

Rajiv Gupta, Senior Professor, Birla Institute of Technology and Science India

This work focuses on estimation of global solar radiation and, in particular, it explores the effect of temperature on solar radiation profile of western India. An accurate knowledge of solar radiation distribution in each particular geographical location is crucial for the  promotion of solar energy technology. The best way of knowing the amount of global solar radiation is to install quality instruments at many locations in the given region. This requires their day-to-day maintenance,  recording and calibration, which is a very costly affair in developing countries like India. We use geographical information system (GIS) to solve this problem. The efficiency of the solar cell is not at the maximum temperature. Paper also finds the optimum field temperature basis where the maximum solar energy can be harnessed annually. Thus, this paper discusses the application of GIS to map the solar potential in western India and regions suitable for tapping solar energy on the basis of global solar radiation data.  

Environmental Impacts of Using GIS Applications in Energy Industry

Dr. Recai Ogur, Assoc.Professor - Department of Public Health, Center for Education and Research on Environment – Gene Interaction, Turkey

There is a strong positive correlation between energy and development for the countries. While the countries want to consume more energy, environmental issues resulting from using fossil related fuels have been increasing. It is clear that energy industry related emissions are one of the most dangerous pollutants for environment. One of the most effective and promising tool for managing energy consumption is geospatial technology. Among the benefits of geospatial applications, the followings could be considered as the main gains for energy industry: (a) Increase in effectiveness (b) cost savings (c) better decision making (d) better communication (e) improved data collection and analysis and improved disaster management. We may divide geospatial technology usage in energy industry in main three areas: management of energy resources, transmission of energy and consumption management. Experience has shown that one of the most effective uses of geospatial technologies is the design and management of transmission of energy and energy resources. Consumption of energy may also be an effective area for geospatial technologies; especially energy performance analysis may help also policy makers, architects and engineers for building better communities.

Bioenergy Atlas for Africa (BAfA)

Dr. Markus Tum (DLR), Dr. Wim Hugo (SAEON), Group on Earth Observations

BAfA provides mechanisms for assessment of viability of bioEnergy in competition with other energy resources, both traditional and alternative, while taking supply and demand into account. It is intended to be of sufficient quality and depth in respect of data and assessment of data to provide decision makers, investors, and policy-makers with a baseline for their activities.  It is designed to eliminate poor choices, and highlight good choices for detailed investigation of projects, interventions, and investments.

Reducing power consumption of networked devices in standby could save 600 TWh of energy

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2013, the world’s networked devices such as set-top boxes, modems, printers and game consoles consumed around 616 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity.  Of this total most of the energy 400 TWh was consumed by devices in so-called "standby" mode. Much of the problem boils down to inefficient “network standby”.  Network standby refers to maintaining a network connection while in standby.  Standby suggests that the device is almost off consuming less power than when it is performing its main task.  The reality is that  network-connected devices often draw as much power in network standby mode as when they are performing their main tasks.

The world’s 14 billion online electronic devices waste around US$ 80 billion each year because of inefficient technology.  In 2013, only a small portion of the world’s population used these connected devices. But as a growing share of the world’s population uses these devices and the Internet of Things begins to include includes smart thermostats, washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners, and lights, the problem will grow rapidly. The IEA estimates that by 2020, wasted power will grow to US$ 120 billion.

The IEA in a recent report More Data, Less Energy: Making Network Standby More Efficient in Billions of Connected Devices identifies simple measures that can be implemented now to improve energy efficiency in networked devices, resulting in massive savings of energy and money.  Consumers are losing money through wasted energy.  This means we build more expensive power stations power stations (which generate more emissions) and transmission and distribution infrastructure that we really don't need.

These network-connected devices are more often than not in standby mode.  According to the IEA by using today’s best available technology, power requirements in standby mode  could be reduced by 65%.

The report projects that if better energy efficiency measures were applied to online devices in the coming years, 600 TWh of energy would be saved.  This would allow the  shutting down of 200 standard 500MW coal-fired power plants and reducing emissions by 600 million metric tonnes of CO2.

Open standards-based foundation for integrating BIM, geospatial and smart meters for urban energy performance optimization

The European Union has set itself aggressive goals to reduce GHG emissions by 20%, increase renewables share of energy generation to 20%, and to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2020.  The EU seems to be on track for the first two goals, but the third remains a challenge.  In 2020, the European consumption of energy is projected to be 25 trillion kWh.  By 2040 it is expected to rise to 28 trillion kWh.  In terms of primary energy consumption, buildings represent around 40%.  In 2009, residential buildings consumed 68% of the total final energy use in buildings.  Energy in households is mainly consumed by heating (70%), cooling, hot water, cooking and appliances. Gas is the most common fuel used in buildings.

 

I have blogged about the European SUNSHINE project before.  The SUNSHINE (Smart Urban Services for Higher Energy Efficiency) project is focused on energy efficiency for buildings in an urban environment.  It is a European Commission (EC) funded project that started about a year ago and is intended to continue for 36 months.

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Energy certification of buildings is a key policy instrument for reducing the energy consumption and improving the energy performance of new and existing buildings. It is expected to help increase demand for high performance buildings by improving the energy performance of the building stock in urban centers. SUNSHINE is intended as a step towards toward such a policy and a way to  contribute to improving the energy efficiency of buildings.  SUNSHINE is intended to be accessible to Web and mobile platforms. An interesting aspect of the project is is the development of an extended CityGML model for representing urban structures for energy performance modeling.

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Three use cases are being considered.

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1 Assessment of energy performance

The goal is to supports the automatic large-scale assessment of building energy performance based on publicly available data. The building energy performance models will be used for energy.density mapping ("ECOMaps") .  It is intended that an ADE extension to CityGML for 3D building energy modeling will be developed.

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2 Heating and cooling forecast and alerts

This focuses on existing buildings that have been selected for energy performance improvement.  It relies on localized weather forecasts and other information to forecast heating/cooling requirements to optimize energy performance..

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3 Optimization of power consumption by public lighting

The idea is to control illumination so that areas are only illuminated when people are present and the level of natural lighting requires it.

 

SUNSHINE is based on customizing and integrating other EC-funded smart city applications including

• Smart urban services based on open standards to support energy efficiency of buildings
• Open data hub for data distribution
• eEnvironmental services for advanced applications within INSPIRE
• 3D CityGML models for solar energy potential assessment and noise mapping & simulation

SUNSHINE will be piloted at nine sites across five countries that include 20 public buildings in Ferrara, 60 technical buildings in Trentino, and public illumination systems in several Italian cities.

 

At Geospatial World Forum 2014 in Geneva this year as part of the GeoEnergy track, Piergiorgio Cipriano, GI/SDI Project Manager at Sinergis, Italy discussed integrating energy usage data from smart meters with city models using the CityGML standard with the goal of improving the energy performance of buildings on an urban scale.

Location is essential for linking information from different providers and sources.  The “ecomap” represents the “energy need” at building level.  For this simple map, it is necessary to integrate at the very least the following data in order to predict building energy performance with sufficient precision:

• Building footprints
• Building height (or number of floors)
• Building use(s)
• Building age and corresponding building envelope stereotypes
• Stereotypes for heating/hot-water/ventilation systems

Building modeling for urban energy performance modeling

The fundamental concept is to exploit existing standards as much as possible to avoid reinventing the wheel.  Two relevant standards for the energy performance analysis of buildings are the INSPIRE data specification for the spatial data theme Buildings (INSPIRE-BU) and  Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) CityGML with an Application Domain Extension (ADE) for the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB).

Convergence of BIM and CityGML

CityGML has strongly influenced the development of the INSPIRE BU model, both for 2D and for 3D profiles.  The concept of a base model defining semantic objects, attributes and relations which are required by most applications has been adopted by INSPIRE BU (as core profiles).  The concept of External Reference to link to more domain-specific information systems or to ensure consistency between 2D and 3D representations of buildings has also been reused in INSPIRE BU.  The design pattern of Building – BuildingPart aggregation is also included in the INSPIRE applications schemas. Many attributes (e.g. RoofType, YearOfConstruction) have been included in INSPIRE BU profiles.
 
Many use cases that were considered for INSPIRE BU require a three-dimensional representation of buildings such as a building information model (BIM). Examples are noise emission simulation and mapping, solar radiation computation or the design of an infrastructure project. To allow for that, the building representation in Level of Detail (LoD1 - LoD4) of CityGML has been added to the INSPIRE BU model as a core 3D profile.  The whole content of LoD1 - LoD4 including  features attached to buildings such as boundaries, openings, rooms are the base of the extended 3D profile.

For large scale energy performance at the urban level,  detailed interior elements of each building are not required.  It is possible to work at a simple Level of Detail 3 (LOD3) and include elements like roofs, envelope walls, and windows.  This can also be used to make a comparison with other data sources such as aerial thermal images.

Energy usage data exchange

Green Button implements the common-sense idea that electricity customers should be able to securely download their own easy-to-understand energy usage captured by their smart meter.  Not only does it provide the retail customer with access to their usage data , it also provides the ability to authorize a third party service provider to access his or her energy usage data directly.  This architecture presents a consistent mechanism for authorized exchange of energy usage information.

To integrate electric power usage information from smart meters into SUNSHINE, the GreenButton specification defined by the NAESD (North American Energy Standards Board) was identified as the preferred implementation option for the meter data exchange protocol to be used in Sunshine.  IEC 61968-9 was judged to be much more complicated and less supported in terms of practical examples and software tools.

Open, standards-based foundation for urban energy performance analysis

Together INSPIRE BU, CityGML with the energy performance ADE, and the Green Button specification for energy usage data provide an open, standards-based foundation for energy performance analysis for urban environments.