Bullet Points: Barriers and Challenges to Building The Smart Grid

BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES TO BUILDING THE SMART GRID
John Wellinghoff (Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulation Commission)      

• Now:
  • There are very few sensors on the grid today
  • Basically blind, prone to failures and blackouts
  • Checking equipment happens manually
  • Emergency decisions rarely made by committee or by phone
  • Limited control over power flows
  • Limited price information
  • Few customer choices
  • Scattered data from the transmission system gives data every 3 seconds
• In the future:
  • Monitors and sensors will be throughout the grid in an intelligent system
  • Adaptive, protective, and islanding
  • Self-monitoring and/or monitored remotely
  • Decision support systems will be predictive and reliable
  • Pervasive control over power flows
  • Full-price information to consumers to use to modify and control their loads
• Many customer choices
• Intelligent load control — smart grid monitoring built into appliances to make them more grid responsive
• System rapidly detects and analyzes, reports, and restores outages
• Advanced visualization tools enable better operating and response options:
  • One of the intelligent asset management tools is a visualization system looking at some standard metrics like balance of resource and demand, and also frequency response and real-time alarming
• Phase monitoring unit will give data every 30th of a second
• Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) can be used as grid support devices when not in use, resulting in payments from the utility company for using the PHEV to support the grid for regulation services
  • University of Delaware in conjunction with PJM and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) testing
• Intelligent load control utilizes a chip in water heaters, dishwashers, washing machines and refrigerators to sense frequency response on the grid and based upon that correlation, appliances can be set on or off automatically
  • Consumers have full override control
  • IBM test pilot consumers saved $30-$40/month on their electric bill
  • The transmission and distribution system looks at all the grid assets collectively to improve the effectiveness of the asset management systems
• FERC authority enacted through:
  • Federal Power Act
  • 2005 Energy Policy Act under Section 1223
  • Section 1221 (Section 215 of the Federal Power Act)
  • 2007 Energy Act