In the electricity industry, there are a couple of ways to think about climate change. The first is to accept the data that shows it is happening and what its impact will be, and thus accept it as an additional driver for planning and action. The other is to accept that if the data is right, even though you don’t think it is, that it has to be a driver for planning or action in the same way that one takes out an insurance policy. Either line of thought should lead to some sort of action.
There are also two ways climate change will be a driver for the electricity industry. The first is climate mitigation, or emissions reduction. The second is climate adaptation, or resiliency.
So from these two perspectives, let’s look at how DER, and all of the different components and aspects of smart grid, fit into climate strategies and action plans. In doing so, we will reveal that any “player” in the electricity sector needs to have someone thinking about how climate change will change the sector, and more specifically, their company’s goals and plans. This will also be the approach used at the upcoming National Summit on Smart Grid and Climate Change on October 13-14 in Washington, DC.
Looking first at emissions reductions, which at some point may not only be driven by policy but also by public opinion, here some of the reasons that electric utilities, non-environmental government agencies, and smart grid/DER companies need to have a point person for climate:
1. Integration of increasing amounts of renewable energy
The number of solar MWs being added to the grid keeps growing and will continue to grow based on climate goals. This means more MWs of intermittent and variable generation on the system – including not only utility scale, but also DER. Smart grid options, particularly on the distribution system, are going to be essential for optimizing, let alone managing, the future electricity system.
2. Increasing deployment of DER
Solar isn’t the only DER that is picking up steam. There are many others that are rapidly being introduced onto the system. Even demand response, long seen by some only as a load modifying resource, is now being viewed as a DER. If the right smart grid technologies are in place to optimize this new DER-based system, then new efficiencies will be wrung out of the system, and reduced emissions will be part of the outcome.
3. Modernization of the distribution system
There is more than one type of efficiency in the electricity sector. Best known of course is end-use efficiency. But with smart grid technologies and practices, a distribution system is ripe for holistic efficiency treatments such as Conservation Voltage Reduction (also known as Volt-Var Optimization). Look for a panel on this at the Summit.
4. Increasing deployment of intelligent and dynamic efficiency
In a similar vein to DER, the increase in smart homes and buildings that are connected to the grid, and managed by smart distribution systems, will lead to additional efficiency gains and emissions reductions on top of what traditional energy efficiency will yield.
5. Improvements in measurement, evaluation, and verification of DSM
There is a new currency in town, and it’s emissions reductions. Demand Side Management (DSM) has long been hampered by the lack of M&V technology in the field for use in verifying kWh reductions from efficiency measures. The advent of smart meters and other smart grid devices means that a new capability exists to determine what kind of savings actually occurred.
6. Emissions tagging of kWh that are produced and saved
While the general public may not yet get it, those of us in the smart grid community understand the importance of marginal costs in trying to optimize a system. We understand that not all kWh cost the same to produce and deliver. But what we will all have to begin to think about as well are marginal emissions rates. Not all kWh generated or saved come with the same emissions rate. For more information, attend the “Savings & emissions reductions, M&V, and impacts” panel at the Summit.
7. Dynamic emissions dispatch
With a distribution system that is increasingly dynamic, controllable, and dispatchable – on a nodal basis in many cases – it is not inconceivable in the future that other factors, besides cost, help to determine dispatch order. Emissions, including on a local basis, could also be a factor.
Turning now to resilience, some of the same aspects as above should be considered as threats to reliability and resilience of the electricity system. And efforts to address them are mounting. More and more utility and industry players are realizing that they need to pursue “grid smartening” as well as “grid hardening.” Here are some of the things to consider:
1. Increasing deployment of DER
Some may think that a system made up of greater amounts of DER would be less reliable and less resilient. But most are beginning to understand that it will be the opposite – as long as the grid (especially the distribution system) is modernized to coordinate and optimize things. Instead of being constrained to a few traditional generation options as in the past, there will be additional distributed options for trying to run the electricity system during extreme weather events and other future reliability threats.
2. Modernization of distribution systems
If you are in the control room during an extreme weather event or a major threat to the system, wouldn’t you like to have as many options as possible for managing the system you are in charge of? That is what you get when you have a distribution system that can identify threats as early as possible and then give you localized, distributed means for addressing them. That is what a “smart” distribution system will provide.
3. Reliability of transmission systems and regional operations
While a lot of the focus these days is on DER and the distribution system, distribution systems “roll-up” into a regional system and regional operations. Modern distribution systems will therefore lead to a more resilient and reliable system at the regional level as well.
4. Enhancements for outage management and restoration
The utility industry (and its customers) is already seeing the benefits of AMI and how it helps with outage management and restoration. AMI is only one of the new technology-based options that will provide a utility with a “smart” distribution system that they can use to improve resiliency and reliability.
5. Increasing deployment of microgrids
If a more distributed system is a more resilient one, it follows that microgrids make sense to consider in a resiliency plan. A mini-system in and of itself, with DER, DR, storage, and other things a part of it, a microgrid is like a mini-distribution system that is in turn part of a local utility distribution system. Microgrids offer a utility an additional option for optimizing the distribution system, but also of course offer the microgrid customer a new option for managing and improving their own reliability and resiliency. Important to note is that a microgrid can be developed, owned, and operated by a utility (as SDG&E has shown). Microgrids are not just a non-utility option.
There is a lot to think about and consider when it comes to the electricity system and climate change, both in terms of emissions reductions and resiliency/reliability. And a great place to think about these issues, ask questions, and learn from experts, will be the upcoming National Summit on Smart Grid and Climate Change in DC on October 13-14.