Wind Energy Bumps Into Power Grid’s Limits

The Energy Challenge
Wind Energy Bumps Into Power Grid’s Limits

By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: August 26, 2008

When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing.

That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.

The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads.

“We need an interstate transmission superhighway system,” said Suedeen G. Kelly, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

While the United States today gets barely 1 percent of its electricity from wind turbines, many experts are starting to think that figure could hit 20 percent.

Achieving that would require moving large amounts of power over long distances, from the windy, lightly populated plains in the middle of the country to the coasts where many people live. Builders are also contemplating immense solar-power stations in the nation’s deserts that would pose the same transmission problems.

The grid’s limitations are putting a damper on such projects already. Gabriel Alonso, chief development officer of Horizon Wind Energy, the company that operates Maple Ridge, said that in parts of Wyoming, a turbine could make 50 percent more electricity than the identical model built in New York or Texas.

“The windiest sites have not been built, because there is no way to move that electricity from there to the load centers,” he said.

The basic problem is that many transmission lines, and the connections between them, are simply too small for the amount of power companies would like to squeeze through them. The difficulty is most acute for long-distance transmission, but shows up at times even over distances of a few hundred miles.

Transmission lines carrying power away from the Maple Ridge farm, near Lowville, N.Y., have sometimes become so congested that the company’s only choice is to shut down — or pay fees for the privilege of continuing to pump power into the lines.

Politicians in Washington have long known about the grid’s limitations but have made scant headway in solving them. They are reluctant to trample the prerogatives of state governments, which have traditionally exercised authority over the grid and have little incentive to push improvements that would benefit neighboring states.

In Texas, T. Boone Pickens, the oilman building the world’s largest wind farm, plans to tackle the grid problem by using a right of way he is developing for water pipelines for a 250-mile transmission line from the Panhandle to the Dallas market. He has testified in Congress that Texas policy is especially favorable for such a project and that other wind developers cannot be expected to match his efforts.

“If you want to do it on a national scale, where the transmission line distances will be much longer, and utility regulations are different, Congress must act,” he said on Capitol Hill.

Enthusiasm for wind energy is running at fever pitch these days, with bold plans on the drawing boards, like Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s notion of dotting New York City with turbines. Companies are even reviving ideas of storing wind-generated energy using compressed air or spinning flywheels.

Yet experts say that without a solution to the grid problem, effective use of wind power on a wide scale is likely to remain a dream.

The power grid is balkanized, with about 200,000 miles of power lines divided among 500 owners. Big transmission upgrades often involve multiple companies, many state governments and numerous permits. Every addition to the grid provokes fights with property owners.

These barriers mean that electrical generation is growing four times faster than transmission, according to federal figures.

In a 2005 energy law, Congress gave the Energy Department the authority to step in to approve transmission if states refused to act. The department designated two areas, one in the Middle Atlantic States and one in the Southwest, as national priorities where it might do so; 14 United States senators then signed a letter saying the department was being too aggressive.

Energy Department leaders say that, however understandable the local concerns, they are getting in the way. “Modernizing the electric infrastructure is an urgent national problem, and one we all share,” said Kevin M. Kolevar, assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability, in a speech last year.

Unlike answers to many of the nation’s energy problems, improvements to the grid would require no new technology. An Energy Department plan to source 20 percent of the nation’s electricity from wind calls for a high-voltage backbone spanning the country that would be similar to 2,100 miles of lines already operated by a company called American Electric Power.

The cost would be high, $60 billion or more, but in theory could be spread across many years and tens of millions of electrical customers. However, in most states, rules used by public service commissions to evaluate transmission investments discourage multistate projects of this sort. In some states with low electric rates, elected officials fear that new lines will simply export their cheap power and drive rates up.

Without a clear way of recovering the costs and earning a profit, and with little leadership on the issue from the federal government, no company or organization has offered to fight the political battles necessary to get such a transmission backbone built.

Texas and California have recently made some progress in building transmission lines for wind power, but nationally, the problem seems likely to get worse. Today, New York State has about 1,500 megawatts of wind capacity. A megawatt is an instantaneous measure of power. A large Wal-Mart draws about one megawatt. The state is planning for an additional 8,000 megawatts of capacity.

But those turbines will need to go in remote, windy areas that are far off the beaten path, electrically speaking, and it is not clear enough transmission capacity will be developed. Save for two underwater connections to Long Island, New York State has not built a major new power line in 20 years.

A handful of states like California that have set aggressive goals for renewable energy are being forced to deal with the issue, since the goals cannot be met without additional power lines.

But Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and a former energy secretary under President Bill Clinton, contends that these piecemeal efforts are not enough to tap the nation’s potential for renewable energy.

Wind advocates say that just two of the windiest states, North Dakota and South Dakota, could in principle generate half the nation’s electricity from turbines. But the way the national grid is configured, half the country would have to move to the Dakotas in order to use the power.

“We still have a third-world grid,” Mr. Richardson said, repeating a comment he has made several times. “With the federal government not investing, not setting good regulatory mechanisms, and basically taking a back seat on everything except drilling and fossil fuels, the grid has not been modernized, especially for wind energy.”

Smart-grid player Trilliant scores $40 million in financing

TRILLIANT'S TECHNOLOGY USED IN HOME ELECTRICITY METERS
By Matt Nauman Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/19/2008 09:20:22 PM PDT


Trilliant, the Redwood City company that adds intelligence and communication capability to utility networks, will announce today that it has raised $40 million in new funding from two venture capital funds.

The total amount, from MissionPoint Capital Partners of Norwalk, Conn., and Zouk Ventures of London, confirms the quickening pace toward a smarter electrical grid, a trend fueled by growing energy-efficiency demands, regulation and innovative technology.

"The grid needs a really healthy nervous system," said Bill Vogel, Trilliant's chief executive.

Trilliant, founded in 1985, has worked with more than 100 utilities globally, most notably Hydro One in Ontario, Canada. The company's technology is found in 250,000 meters today, a number that's growing at 50,000 a month, Vogel said. He added that Trilliant's revenues are on target to double from about $50 million in 2007 to more than $100 million this year.

Vogel said the company will use the new investment to expand internationally, add to its executive ranks, increase its marketing efforts in North America and to scale up production.

The funding news follows similar announcements in recent months from Trilliant's rivals, including BPL Global, Ambient, GridPoint and SmartSynch. EMeter of San Mateo raised $12.5 million in April. Silver Spring Networks of Redwood City raised $17.4 million that same month.

Smart grid systems are designed to give customers greater knowledge
of their energy use, and allow them to conserve during periods of peak demand. The systems also give utilities a better sense of power usage and help them prepare for anticipated power sources, including rooftop solar systems and electric and plug-in hybrid cars. But critics worry that improved grid systems will cost too much money and not be as effective as promised.

Pacific Gas & Electric has said it will spend at least $1.7 billion to install nearly 10 million smart electric and gas meters in central and Northern California.

Trilliant has not worked with PG&E.

Smart Meters save money for everyone - even Con Ed

Smart Meters save money for everyone - even Con Ed
Monday, August 4th 2008, 7:32 PM


Eric Gioia, City Councilman
Be Our Guest: Eric Gioia, City Councilman


These days, the price of everything is going up - gas, rent, groceries - not least of all New Yorkers' energy bills. On top of a 4.9% increase in April, New Yorkers are looking at a 22% increase this summer. In the midst of the summer heat wave, that's a wallop.

New digital technology - called Smart Meters - has allowed customers elsewhere to cut their bills by 10%, but here in New York, Con Ed continues to rely on 19th century technology to power a 21st century city. This is why I have proposed mandating that Con Ed install Smart Meters in all new buildings, and by 2011 have all meters in New York City be converted to Smart Meters.

Smart Meters take the place of old meters by using digital technology to help streamline service for consumers in real time. The ability to know when prices are high, and when they are low, allows the consumer to save money on their bills by adjusting their consumption. According to a year-long study by the U.S Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, consumers in the Smart Meter system saved 10% on their power bills, and cut their power use by 15% during peak hours. Utility companies also rely less on on-site inspections, saving consumers' time, and giving the utilities a better ability to track outages digitally.

Smart Meters will help prevent blackouts and will help to green the city as New York's power grid suffers the strains of an aging infrastructure. The national power grid has remained generally unchanged since it was first erected at the end of the 19th century. Large power plants deliver power in a massively inefficient system which requires investment in infrastructure that is often not used to its full capacity, and wastes fuel. Smart Meters help customers relieve the stress on the grid. Since the power plants run more efficiently, and since consumers can regulate their own power, less energy is used, and there is less waste.

Con Ed is falling behind the rest of the world. In April of last year, the British government announced plans for every household to obtain a Smart Meter. Italian utility Enel SpA undertook the largest Smart Meter implementation with more than 27 million meters given to customers between 2000 and 2005, with an average saving of 500 euros per year, effectively paying back the 2 billion euro investment in a four-year period. Other nations using Smart Meter technologies include Turkey, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Smart Meter technologies are currently deployed in the United States. In Boulder, Colo., Minneapolis-based utility Xcel launched a $100 million program to implement the Smart Grid. The project, announced in May 2008, will be completed in 2009, and will include smart meters in all homes. In Austin, Tex., 200,000 meters are currently Smart Meters, and by the first quarter of 2009, Austin Energy will have 500,000 Smart Grid devices.

By mandating Smart Meters in all new buildings, and by pushing for Smart Meters in all buildings by 2011, New Yorkers can lower their bills, help the environment and prevent blackouts. Smart Meters are precisely the kind of infrastructure that Con Ed needs to invest in as New York moves into the 21st century in order to ensure New York does not fall further behind the energy technology curve. Installing Smart Meters will ensure that New York remains a global capital and leader in green technologies, along with leaving a cleaner, more sustainable city for our children. Smart Meters are the smart choice for New York.

City Councilman Eric Gioia's district includes Long Island City, Woodside and Sunnyside.'Con Ed is falling behind the rest of the world.'