Lost in transmission? Not if we get smart

IAN HARVEY

Special to The Globe and Mail

Solving North America's energy-demand puzzle is going to take some smart thinking, but the key component in the equation may be the one most overlooked.

That's the grid itself -- those 528,000 kilometres of transmission wires in North America alone that could wrap the Earth 13 times and carry the energy equivalent of the atomic bomb dropped at Hiroshima every minute.

Investment in the grid has declined over the past 25 years and with it the margins of operating safety. We ignore the grid at our peril, as illustrated by the August, 2003 blackout that knocked out power to 50 million people, as more than 400 generators tripped off line and brought the Eastern seaboard of North America to a standstill for 30 hours.

And that's the point, says Christopher Henderson, chief executive officer of Delphi Group, an Ottawa-based company that advises clients on innovations in clean technology.

It's not only about how you make electricity and how you use it, it's about how you get from where it's made to where it's used. That's where the so-called "smart" grid comes in, Mr. Henderson says.

Until recently, the electrical grid was simply a collection of wires, substations and transformers with very little in the way of integrated sentient technology. While many advances have been made and digital controls have been installed, much of the grid's aging core remains rooted in technology unchanged since the early 1900s.

But with leakage -- power lost during transmission -- running up to 25 per cent and the reality of more frequent power outages, how we monitor, manage and update the grid is a crucial third piece of the energy puzzle.

"We have a pretty dumb grid right now," says Bogdan Kasztenny, chief technologist and systems engineer of Markham-based GE Multilin, which designs and builds the technology for large grids. "We really don't have much information about what is going on because the equipment doesn't talk to each other."

The smart grid is a power distribution system integrated with digital sensors and controls that communicate not just with a central control point but with other components in the network via fibre optics or similar high-speed broadband technology. As such, a threat to the system's stability in one sector can quickly be communicated, allowing software to restore balance and alert human sentinels should more action be required.

Maintaining equilibrium is the key because the big problem with high voltage electricity is that we can't store it -- we must produce what we consume at the same time.

The trick in grid management, then, Mr. Kasztenny says, is a precarious balancing act that ramps power supply up or down according to demand. Too much power and the system collapses under its own weight; too little and high demand draws off too much voltage and everything comes to a halt.

It's a difficult enough process, he says, without the added zingers of having to isolate sections of the grid in the event of equipment failure, accidents or simple maintenance.

"Right now we have very little information on what the grid is doing," he says. "If we want to check on a transformer station, most of the time you'd have to drive 30 kilometres or 100 kilometres to get there and see for yourself."

In Ontario, Hydro One is upgrading mechanical switches to digital equipment as part of life cycle replacements, say Mike Penstone, director of system investments. Since 2000, Hydro One has invested about $255-million replacing its microwave communication system -- first installed as part of an upgrade after the 1965 Eastern Seaboard blackout -- with a fibre optic system that allows digital monitoring and protection of the grid where possible.

In addition, Hydro One has spent $80-million to build a state-of-the-art control facility in Barrie that incorporates a definitive move toward more digital and computer controlled systems. The utility spends about $25-million a year on digital controls in addition to its regular maintenance and repairs of lines and towers.

Gathering real time data and using software to analyze trends and make millisecond decisions about what parts of the grids to shut down to maintain that balance is crucial, Mr. Kasztenny says.

The alternative is to maintain "spinning resources," generators kept idling until demand requires their output, when they are then engaged -- a wasteful and extremely expensive option.

A better solution under the smart grid plan is digital switching, connected by a fibre optic network strung in parallel with transmission towers to relay real-time data to be shared by all utility players.

Investing those resources in the grid's architecture is a more pressing issue now, Mr. Henderson says, because energy production is and will continue to come from a more diverse range of sources such as small local generators -- including the 550 megawatt Portlands Energy Centre in Toronto -- or wind farms such as those being built on the shores of Lake Huron, all of which make maintaining the balancing act a little more precarious.

Upgrading the grid to digital controls is inevitable, says Larry Sollecito, president and CEO of GE Multilin, but he notes there are political hurdles to overcome. Utilities, he says, are reluctant to share data, partly for competitive reasons and partly because of liability issues.

"Look at what happened after the August, 2003 blackout and the finger pointing. No one wants to admit they were at fault," he says.

Instead of leaving decisions to humans whose judgments and reactions may be swayed or delayed, he says, we're better off leaving them to software.

A few small pilot projects are under way in U.S. jurisdictions. There, in addition to more sophisticated monitoring of power transmission and "smart" meters to track peak usage, operators can ask heavy users to reduce consumption when the grid becomes unstable.

Smart meters are also appearing in Canadian homes and are prompting energy savings as homeowners are better able to pinpoint when their consumption rates are highest and most expensive -- and react accordingly.

Upgrading the grid is going to cost billions of dollars, beyond the $12-billion (U.S.) invested annually now, and it will take years given the sheer size of the infrastructure.

That reality is trickling down into the venture capital community.

"I think the penny has dropped," says Jesse Berst, president of the Centre for Smart Energy Research. Spending billions on new energy plants and struggling to reduce greenhouse gases is counterintuitive if there are gains to be made by upgrading the grid, he says. Some estimates suggest grid congestion costs $100-billion a year.

How a 'smart' grid manages power

In this example, the use of air-conditioners increases sharply on a warm day, and utilities must cope or risk power interruptions. Because the smart grid's power and communications systems are integrated, the utility can make use of all available supply- and demand-side options and avoid a power shortfall.

1. The transmission system operator, integrating weather data with real-time information from sensors embedded in the grid, forecasts that the utility may not be able to meet the coming peak load for a part of its service territory. To prevent a shortfall, the operator calls for reduced customer usage and asks generators to sell any surplus power.

2. The utility sends a signal to its customers' communication portals, offering special incentives for customers who shed load during the peak period.

3. In response, one industrial customer decides to shut down one of its three assembly lines for several hours.

4. A commercial customer shifts over to an on-site backup generator and is able to sell some excess power back to the utility.

5. Several residential customers have preprogrammed their home systems to automatically dim the lights and reset thermostats higher in response to such an offer. Another residence, which has rooftop solar panels, feeds electricity back into the grid.

SOURCE: ADAPTED FROM EPRI JOURNAL