The $3.4Billion in grants for smart grid technology that were awarded yesterday are the single largest one-day award from the stimulus bill. There are 100 companies involved in the projects that are within 49 states, excluding Alaska. The funds will go into the accounts of awardees within 60 days, and the projects are projected to take between 12 and 36 months.
The largest technology element of this award is for smart meters, paying for 18 million smart meters in homes to allow homeowners to better manager their energy use. There are 700 automated substations included, which will allow utilities to quickly restore power in the event of emergencies. And there will be 200,000 smart transformers.
Details on the 100 grants that were awarded can be found in this PDF Document, including coverage maps.
Energy Camp blog publishes a Google Map showing the positions of current Smart Grid projects internationally. Needless to say, there are quite a few markers on the map. The article goes on to describe the rising awareness of Smart Grids.
In practice, I wonder sometimes if the Smart Grid will turn out to be as distinct and separated from other energy efficiency related initiatives. It will be difficult to see electricity alone as separated, for example, from the building industry or the transport initiatives of the European Technology Platforms. The production and management of energy will criss-cross applications and daily living, deepening into IT structures, yet, will continuously require a constellation of knowledge from various discplines to ensure it’s convergence remains practical, economical and useful.
Intelligent metering is a European project that was focused upon building capacity about the use and application of intelligent metering across Europe. While it ended in 2006, several useful resources are available on the site. The “objective of the project was to maximize the energy savings available across Europe through the use of intelligent metering and behavioral changes of building occupants. This project has aimed to demonstrate and promote the savings available from the use of intelligent metering and training occupants in public buildings and to show that these savings can be achieved at little, or no, additional cost.”
Currently, an Intelligent Metering Initiative in the UK involves a broad range of industry partners. The European Union also covers Intelligent Metering through the European Intelligent Energy portal. Several Management Tools for INtelligent Metering are also available via Energy Europe.
Many people do not know that satellite imagery and laser technologies can play a major role in the development and operation of energy infrastructure. These technologies can capture large quantities of data suitable for constructing 3D models of plant infrastructure, monitoring vegetation and possible leakage as well as providing information suitable for topographic analysis – slopes and elevations of the landscape.
Whether a pipeline is being constructed, solar panels are being oriented and situated or wind establishments are being initiated, satellite imagery and laser technologies play a significant role. In fact, the production of agricultural crops for bioenergy and the monitoring of wave activity can all be obtained through these innovative technologies.
Today, there is a growing presence of satellites surrounding the planet. These satellites are owned and operated by both private industry and government related agencies. Whereas older satellites were reliable and some of them continue to operate, newer satellites are capable of providing higher resolution imagery, often below 10 meters and sometimes as low as 1 meter or better.
This capability has changed the picture for energy company’s considering the use of satellite imagery and related services. With higher resolution and increased frequency or re-visitation times, it is becoming much more practical to monitor and create useful information for energy planning and operations than previously.
Many companies realise the benefits that satellit eimagery provides and some of these advantages extend beyond the apparent picture within the image itself. For instance, most imagery can be further analysed to provide detailed interpretive information. Many people point to this characteristic as being the heart or value of imagery. Careful analysis and processing can provide 3D information about the terrain and other factors.
Laser instrumentation has great value for the energy industry and is used in many different ways. Those company’s operating gas plants and other infrastructure invariably find that those assets are not fully and efficiently managed. Laser technologies enable this infrastructure to be measured and objects to be determined. This has immense operational value since these objects can then be integrated with current and future planning, perhaps maintenance as well, into one stream lined and integrated system.
Essentially then the objective is to use new technologies like satellite imagery and laser technologies as a means to enable digital energy work flows that cut across planning, construction, operation and maintenance. High need for participation within regulatory frameworks and an increased need for sharing information means that these technologies can be used to enable communication initiatives too.
Keep an eye on these technologies. They are penetrating the energy industry in direct and indirect ways as energy is discussed from a broader context linking to ‘green’ plans and environmental factors at the same time.
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Jeff Thurston is editor at V1 Energy Magazine and V1 Magazine for Vector1 Media in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is based in Berlin.
The transfer of knowledge from research to applications is a challenge for many organisations. ProRETT was funded by the EU with the purpose of transferring knowledge about developing energy related technologies for renewable energies.
The ProRETT training manual assists by providing information about commercialising research technologies.
Another aspect of technology transfer addresses the cycle of innovation and how research proceeds, and what factors stimulate renewable energy developments. A slide presentation is available that provides a wealth of information on this topic.
Rail Energy (Innovative Integrated Energy Efficiency Solutions for Railway Rolling Stock, Rail Infrastructure and Train Operation) is a 4 year project running from 2006 until September 2009 that is funded by the European Commission and supported through the European 6th Framework for research. The project is oriented toward increasing energy efficient throughout the rail industry across Europe.
“Inter-relationship of railway sub-systems is highly complex, especially with regard to assessing their consumption of energy. Railenergy therefore will develop a fully integrated approach as the only way to achieve true energy savings. Railenergy also aims to generate new validation standards for the energy performance of products and services and to contribute to the European harmonisation process.”
Since most railways are powered through overhead electricity, then efficiency is related to the production and delivery of energy. However, improvements in rolling stock and locomotive design are also significant factors toward achieving higher efficiency.
Bentley Systems, Incorporated announced the new Bentley Substation V8i product yesterday. The software is the first of it’s type on the market and a major step ahead to intelligent 3D modelling for electrical substation planning, operation and lifecycle management.
Image: Bentley Systems, Incorporated
Richard Zambuni of Bentley Systems introduced the new product saying, “utility operations today have operated in a similar way for decades and this product will open the door to the 21st century utility.” He indicated that this product will bring a major change from operating in 2D to operating in 3D for electrical utilities.
Major drivers for this product include a need for increased collaboration and changing patterns in energy supply and demand.
Substations are changing. Smart Grids need to be re-designed to allow for the step-down of all forms of power types (non-renewable and renewable) from generating sources. Current growth in substations is rapid and required to meet these needs.
Image: Bentley Systems, Incorporated
The needs for utility modelling include (3D):
1) Integrates physical design
2) Creates information model
3) Collaboration between individual and groups
4) Documentation creation 100%
Bentley Substation V8i is estimated to produce a gain of 30% in design time and capable of achieving upwards of 60% reduction in building costs due to increased efficiency – fewer design hours, fewer errors and faster approvals.
Image: Bentley Systems, Incorporated
Major gains include:
- Intelligent substation information models that allow distributed users to work efficiently with federated data in a single environment;
- The most complete set of substation engineering and design tools available with a common graphical user interface, making the software easy to learn;
- Integration with the ProjectWise system for connecting people and information to facilitate engineering content management and team collaboration in support of streamlined workflows.
Bentley Substation V8i also includes an inventory of 2 million common electrical parts that users can include immediately into their designs. The company is aiming the product directly into the growing Smart Grid energy and electricity market place. China is anticipated to see the largest growth and the product will become available shortly.
IBERDROLA Engineering and Construction in Spain has been testing the software prior during the development stages and notes considerable gains in integrating their work flow processes.
Image: Bentley Systems, Incorporated
The design of substations can now be coupled to the traditional 2D drawings. But important benefits are also being realised through being able to work in 3D, such as avoidance of clashes, improved measurement and better communication of designs for approval.
This is a major step forward in terms of intelligent utility design. Bentley Systems is already a significant player in the utility market from design through to de-commissioning, and the product fits in well to the already existing product offering.
More information:
The Finnish national government established an Energy Efficiency Committee which proposed several recommendations that would save large amounts of energy through increased efficiency. In total the amount of energy saved would be 11.4% by 2020 and amount 37 terrawatt hours.
From the report - “Determined energy saving and energy efficiency measures can achieve savings of 37 terawatt hours in final energy consumption by 2020. This can be achieved through 125 measures that the Energy Efficiency Committee, established by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, submitted to Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Economic Affairs, on 9 June 2009. Proposals in the Committee report cover all sectors of society, from trade and industry to private consumption.”
The Toronto Star reports on renewable energy in France. The French population is against wind turbines on the landscape and large areas of solar panels. The solution – to build renewable energy devices within buildings near the top. This would combine architecture with efficiency.
From the Toronto Star -
“In France or Europe, you have people who are against wind energy because it creates a big impact on the landscape,” said Ménard. “That is too bad; we cannot afford such a luxury.”
The new turbines should be located in unobstructed areas, he said. But the group is looking into developing turbines that would work on the top of buildings as well.
The power industry in Europe has requested that changes include incentives for them to develop new smart grids.
Electrical power production in Europe is heavily regulated through monopolies currently and smart grids differ in their approach to the production of electricity.
“Smart grids introduce information technology to electricity transportation, allowing energy to flow in two directions. This gives them a superior capacity to integrate both small and large-scale renewable energy into the grid. It allows households to produce their own renewable energy and sell it back to the grid,” states a EurActiv report.
