Smart grid demonstrations aim to validate concept

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in RCR Wireless News’ January Special Edition, Wireless Infrastructure: The Engine for Economic Recovery. Look for our March Special Edition coming soon.
The Department of Energy’s $620 million in awards for smart grids and other energy-related projects should provide the government and industry real insight into how to get the nation’s electrical grid talking.
Wireless technology will be used to help utility grids become smarter as the technology can help better manage in the delivery of electricity in real time in a more efficient manner. But how great a role wireless plays in the evolving smart grid has yet to be determined. The smart grid system is something that will take decades to achieve, but real progress is under way. In order for this vision to develop, billing systems and other items that touch the grid will need to be implemented.
The $620 million in public funding, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be matched with another $1 billion in private-sector funding, DoE said. These demonstrations should prove which areas of the smart grid are easy to develop, and which will take more effort. For example, smart meter reading is often referred to as the low-hanging fruit in the intersection of wireless services and the utility grid. However, today’s technology is just the tip of the iceberg. Utilities Telecom Council President and CEO Bill Moroney noted in an interview with RCR Wireless News that San Diego Gas and Electric found that if 80% of its customers used their washers and drivers at off-peak times, it could eliminate two power plants. Wireless technology that could monitor appliances could use energy more efficiently and eliminate waste.
The Department of Energy awarded the grant money to 32 projects taking place in two key areas: the smart grid and energy storage projects. Sixteen projects totaling $435 million will support smart grid demonstrations in 21 states, representing more than 50 utilities and the like and a combined customer base of nearly 100 million customers, according to the Energy Department. The remaining funds, $185 million, will be used for 16 projects that will help fund utility-scale energy storage projects that seek to make the grid more efficient and reliable, as well as study expanded integration of renewable energy sources like wind and photovoltaic systems.
“These demonstration projects will further our knowledge and understanding of what works best and delivers the best results for the smart grid, setting the course for a modern grid that is critical to achieving our energy goals,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “This funding will be used to show how smart grid technologies can be applied to whole systems to promote energy savings for consumers, increase energy efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
“These efforts will provide invaluable data on the benefits and cost-effectiveness of the smart grid, including energy and cost savings. An analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that implementing smart grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than 4% by 2030. That would mean a savings of $20.4 billion for businesses and consumers around the country, and $700 million for Ohio alone — or $61 in utility savings for every man, woman and child in Ohio.”
Among the most expensive projects funded is one that covers half the state of Ohio, calling for 110,000 residents to take part in a secure, interoperable and integrated smart grid designed to enable customers to reduce energy and save money. The project uses 13 different technologies, from the grid to the home and at points in between. The $150 million project received $75 million in public funds and matching funds from the private sector.
A $92.4 million project in the New York/New Jersey area is also interesting, simply because of its scope, said Paul Besozzi, a partner in the Technology and Communications group at law firm Patton Boggs L.L.P. This project aims to demonstrate a secure, interoperable scalable, cost-effective prototype using cyber security, that reduces electricity demand and peak energy use and includes renewable energy generation, grid monitoring and vehicle charging stations. “It’s a soup-to-nuts grant,” Besozzi commented.
A smart grid project in the Pacific Northwest is set to encompasses a wide geographic region. The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration includes five states and will demonstrate two-way communication between distributed generation, storage and demand assets and the existing grid infrastructure.
The Austin, Texas, Pecan Street Project is also interesting, Besozzi noted, because it will use a microgrid to link 1,000 residential smart meters, 75 commercial meters and feature plug-in electrical vehicle charging sites. The demonstration received more than $24.6 million in combined public and private-sector funding.
Privacy, Cyber-security issues
Besozzi said privacy and cyber-security issues will have to be addressed in any smart grid project.
Regarding privacy, “a lot of data is going to be collected with a smart grid,” he noted. Who has access to that data and how that data can be used will have to be defined. Telecom carriers are subject to Customer Premise Network Information rules, which control access to telephone information from customers. The smart grid will also have intimate information on customers, from anything like when they are home, whether they engaged a home security alarm and how much energy they consume and when, Besozzi noted.
Cyber-security concerns also must be addressed with any smart grid deployment. Indeed, part of the reason the utilities industry is asking for its own spectrum for a smart grid system is the belief that any smart network must employ military-grade security because the electrical grid is critical infrastructure that is imperative to the nation’s security.
FCC initiatives under way
As part of the Federal Communications Commission’s mandate to develop a national broadband plan, the FCC in mid 2009 issued a Notice of Inquiry about how smart-grid applications could advance the nation’s energy independence. The FCC now is specifically asking which private and public networks and technologies are best suited to be used for smart-grid applications, with an eye toward the bandwidth, latency, reliability and coverage requirements for various smart-grid applications. The FCC is also seeking comment on the costs and benefits of existing smart-grid deployments, and whether existing commercial communications networks are adequate.
The initiative could pit the utilities industry, which is on the record as wanting its own spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band, against commercial wireless carriers, which traditionally have been reluctant to encourage other entities to gain access to spectrum, especially without going through an auction process. Further, commercial wireless carriers maintain many smart-grid applications can be deployed using their existing spectrum. As such, it is likely a mix of wired and wireless and private and public communications networks will be used to develop smart-grid applications.
Canada has set aside 30 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band for utilities and the utilities industry would like the same to the networks could be harmonized. Proponents point to the largest power blackout in North America that took place in August 2003, impacting an estimated 50 million people across the Eastern and Midwest United States and Ontario.