Success Stories at GridWeek
John J. "Jack" Mc Gowan, CEM
Energy Control Inc.
April 2007
A truly exciting event in the ongoing development of GridWise and Smart Energy Technology will be GridWeek. During the week of April 23 – 26 the technology leaders will be in Washington, DC to work together on next steps and to communicate to policy makers the importance of this initiative.
One really exciting part of GridWeek will be a Congressional Reception on April 24 at the Senate Hart Building. This reception will highlight Six Success Stories from Six States that are poster children for the future of GridWise.
Among the exciting stories are smart meter projects from Southern California Edison and Wal-Mart, a New Energy Economics story from IBM and Battelle National Labs, GridWise Interoperability from New Mexico and a Plug-in Hybrid story. These are diverse examples of how technology is being used in a forward looking way to expand energy management beyond the building in ways that bring value on both sides of the meter. A few of these stories will be briefly identified here and you can expect to hear more about them in coming months.
Smart Metering is an interesting topic that has been of interest to building automation for decades. The topic first caught on with utilities as a way to cut the cost of individually reading every meter by automating part of the process. This initiative has been elevated now to an Advanced Metering Initiative and California is on the forefront of the effort with rules that their commission pass requiring that all meters be capable of providing interval data and that communication links be provided to all customers. This opens up the capability to redefine the way customers make decisions about using electricity and how they are charged for it. Therefore Advanced Metering is an initiative that goes far beyond simply reading the meter and anticipates the provision of energy and possibly non-energy related services through the communication backbone that would be created to the meter. Broadband communications over power line would be a non-energy related service. The California vision of advanced meter focuses on customer-oriented or demand-side solutions. The idea is to create a technology and pricing policy foundation that links customer rates with the market price for energy. More specifically, it seeks to provide customers with information and real capability to better manage their energy bills. Quite simply that sounds a lot like the purpose of early building automation systems that were called energy management systems, but it really is the next generation of convergence blending energy with IT and building applications. Wal Mart will be featured because they are using smart metering with building automation to optimize the energy performance of their stores. The system further provides real time information on energy consumption against baseline and through web services; managers can diagnose issues and execute corrections on line.
Interoperability is a not a new term in the automation world and the project from New Mexico takes this notion of next generation-convergences to its logical conclusion. The projects will implement a Web Service between a major utility and one of its large customers. That customer, a university, has spent $60 million over the last 5 years on a new high efficiency chiller and boiler plant, eight megawatts of combined heat and power systems, campus wide automation and integration for over 100 buildings and campus wide smart metering systems to monitor consumption to a building level. In addition they are rehabing a large thermal storage system that will be charged by solar thermal power, and integrated with an absorption chiller. This is the ultimate integration project because it ties together complex building systems; a central plant with renewable energy systems for heating and cooling and distributed generation, with Web Services for interoperability between automation, metering and energy systems. With all of that integration it creates an exciting opportunity to completely rethink building management. We can already see with the rapid growth of Automated Demand Response that the market, the utilities and the energy users are ready to explore energy control sequences are a more global basis. This is the next frontier for energy and building automation and GridWeek will be the place to glimpse how the future will look and feel.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
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MANDATORY RENEWABLE ENERGY – THE ENERGY EVOLUTION –R13
ReplyDeleteIn order to insure energy and economic independence as well as better economic growth without being blackmailed by foreign countries, our country, the United States of America’s Utilization of Energy Sources must change.
"Energy drives our entire economy.” We must protect it. "Let's face it, without energy the whole economy and economic society we have set up would come to a halt. So you want to have control over such an important resource that you need for your society and your economy." The American way of life is not negotiable.
Our continued dependence on fossil fuels could and will lead to catastrophic consequences.
The federal, state and local government should implement a mandatory renewable energy installation program for residential and commercial property on new construction and remodeling projects with the use of energy efficient material, mechanical systems, appliances, lighting, retrofits etc. The source of energy must be by renewable energy such as Solar-Photovoltaic, Geothermal, Wind, Biofuels, Ocean-Tidal, Hydrogen-Fuel Cell etc. This includes the utilizing of water from lakes, rivers and oceans to circulate in cooling towers to produce air conditioning and the utilization of proper landscaping to reduce energy consumption. (Sales tax on renewable energy products and energy efficiency should be reduced or eliminated)
The implementation of mandatory renewable energy could be done on a gradual scale over the next 10 years. At the end of the 10 year period all construction and energy use in the structures throughout the United States must be 100% powered by renewable energy. (This can be done by amending building code)
In addition, the governments must impose laws, rules and regulations whereby the utility companies must comply with a fair “NET METERING” (the buying of excess generation from the consumer at market price), including the promotion of research and production of “renewable energy technology” with various long term incentives and grants. The various foundations in existence should be used to contribute to this cause.
A mandatory time table should also be established for the automobile industry to gradually produce an automobile powered by renewable energy. The American automobile industry is surely capable of accomplishing this task. As an inducement to buy hybrid automobiles (sales tax should be reduced or eliminated on American manufactured automobiles).
This is a way to expedite our energy independence and economic growth. (This will also create a substantial amount of new jobs). It will take maximum effort and a relentless pursuit of the private, commercial and industrial government sectors’ commitment to renewable energy – energy generation (wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, energy storage (fuel cells, advance batteries), energy infrastructure (management, transmission) and energy efficiency (lighting, sensors, automation, conservation) (rainwater harvesting, water conservation) (energy and natural resources conservation) in order to achieve our energy independence.
"To succeed, you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality."
Jay Draiman, Energy Consultant
Northridge, CA. 91325
Mar. 30, 2007
P.S. I have a very deep belief in America's capabilities. Within the next 10 years we can accomplish our energy independence, if we as a nation truly set our goals to accomplish this.
I happen to believe that we can do it. In another crisis--the one in 1942--President Franklin D. Roosevelt said this country would build 60,000 [50,000] military aircraft. By 1943, production in that program had reached 125,000 aircraft annually. They did it then. We can do it now.
"the way we produce and use energy must fundamentally change."
The American people resilience and determination to retain the way of life is unconquerable and we as a nation will succeed in this endeavor of Energy Independence.
The Oil Companies should be required to invest a substantial percentage of their profit in renewable energy R&D and implementation. Those who do not will be panelized by the public at large by boy cutting their products.
Solar energy is the source of all energy on the earth (excepting volcanic geothermal). Wind, wave and fossil fuels all get their energy from the sun. Fossil fuels are only a battery which will eventually run out. The sooner we can exploit all forms of Solar energy (cost effectively or not against dubiously cheap FFs) the better off we will all be. If the battery runs out first, the survivors will all be living like in the 18th century again.
Every new home built should come with a solar package. A 1.5 kW per bedroom is a good rule of thumb. The formula 1.5 X's 5 hrs per day X's 30 days will produce about 225 kWh per bedroom monthly. This peak production period will offset 17 to 2
4 cents per kWh with a potential of $160 per month or about $60,000 over the 30-year mortgage period for a three-bedroom home. It is economically feasible at the current energy price and the interest portion of the loan is deductible. Why not?
Title 24 has been mandated forcing developers to build energy efficient homes. Their bull-headedness put them in that position and now they see that Title 24 works with little added cost. Solar should also be mandated and if the developer designs a home that solar is impossible to do then they should pay an equivalent mitigation fee allowing others to put solar on in place of their negligence. (Installation should be paid “performance based”).
Installation of renewable energy and its performance should be paid to the installer and manufacturer based on "performance based" (that means they are held accountable for the performance of the product - that includes the automobile industry). This will gain the trust and confidence of the end-user to proceed with such a project; it will also prove to the public that it is a viable avenue of energy conservation.
Installing a renewable energy system on your home or business increases the value of the property and provides a marketing advantage. It also decreases our trade deficit.
Nations of the world should unite and join together in a cohesive effort to develop and implement MANDATORY RENEWABLE ENERGY for the sake of humankind and future generations.
The head of the U.S. government's renewable energy lab said Monday (Feb. 5) that the federal government is doing "embarrassingly few things" to foster renewable energy, leaving leadership to the states at a time of opportunity to change the nation's energy future. "I see little happening at the federal level. Much more needs to happen." What's needed, he said, is a change of our national mind set. Instead of viewing the hurdles that still face renewable sources and setting national energy goals with those hurdles in mind, we should set ambitious national renewable energy goals and set about overcoming the hurdles to meet them. We have an opportunity, an opportunity we can take advantage of or an opportunity we can squander and let go,"
solar energy - the direct conversion of sunlight with solar cells, either into electricity or hydrogen, faces cost hurdles independent of their intrinsic efficiency. Ways must be found to lower production costs and design better conversion and storage systems.
FEDERAL BUILDINGS WITH SOLAR ENERGY – Renewable Energy
All government buildings, Federal, State, County, City etc. should be mandated to be energy efficient and must use renewable energy on all new structures and structures that are been remodeled/upgraded.
"The goverment should serve as an example to its citizens"
Jay Draiman, Energy Consultant
Northridge, CA 91325
Email: renewableenergy2@msn.com