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"The Grid".
by Hakan Falk, "Energy Saving Now"
The Electricity Grid ("The Grid") in a country is potentially one of the most important tools in building fossil energy independence and the use of alternative energy sources. "The Grid" connects and distribute to the consumers and anyone of them can also be a potential energy supplier, without any technical modifications. Germany is a country that early recognized this and Janet Sawin describes this in her article "Germany Leads the World in Alternative Energy". It is also many states in US and countries who, more or less enthusiastically, secured the possibility to use "The Grid" in the same way.
Apart from the distribution function of "The Grid", the maybe largest future value will be the collection capacity. It does not take much imagination to see a very large small scale energy production, that can be collected from home and small business owners.
The two main methods to allow small consumers to connect electricity producing equipment are the "net metering" or "purchase metering". When looking closer to the ability, it is very good business for all parties.
Sources of small electricity production.
The sources for small scale production can be solar panels, small wind turbines, micro hydro, co-generation, etc. It does not take much imagination to see that the future cars, can double as source for electricity and heating system in residential use. A future where your hybrid car plugs in to your house as power station, when not used for transport, is neither phantasy nor very futuristic. Getting both heat and electricity will have the same or better efficiency than todays power stations. To be able to realize such a system, which make sense, "The Grid" is an essential part.
Function of "The Grid".
The traditional function of "The Grid" has been to distribute electricity from large electricity sources like dams and other power plants. A few hundreds power plants to millions of users. Basically "The Grid" is reversible and could be millions of power plants to a few hundreds consumer. The large power suppliers have over load protection and it is a bit more complicated, but the principles are simple. It is when this goes wrong, that "black out" etc, can be experienced. Many small energy producers will actually make "The Grid" less vulnerable and contribute to better capacity use.
"Net metering".
"Net metering" is the most common way to connect the small individual producer, with some sort of minor own electricity production. It is based on the fact that almost all metering equipment will spin backwards, if the current goes out instead of in to the consumer. The consumer will pay the minimum periodical connection fee, plus any consumption over that. If the consumer delivers more back to the supplier than he uses, he will not receive any credits for this. It is simple and in reality the consumer will pay for using the electricity company as storage, instead of an off grid battery storage solution. It will also encourage and facilitate small producer equipment, that many times only give a partial savings for the consumer.
"Purchase metering".
"Purchase metering" is when the power distributor installs an extra meter for electricity delivered to him. This is used when the consumer delivers much more than his own usage and sells the surplus. In some countries, this can be sold under time limited special programs and the price for renewable is higher than normal. Such programs are in place to encourage investments in small producer equipment and is often subsidized by the government.
"No Program" for connection.
It is many countries that do not yet offer any encouragement or even permissions for connection of small producer equipment. Typically the lower limits for any connection, will be around a 5 to 10 MW power plant. Often those countries either have not reach maturity, or are influenced by a very conservative power industry. In some of them it is a sort of inofficial "Net metering" policy and they will not pursue anyone who connects and spinning the meter backwards. The number of countries that officially and legally will uphold a connection ban are becoming rare. This especially since a user equipment with ease can either go off grid, or have a battery system that anyway gives the benefits of net metering. The investment threshold only becomes a bit bigger and the gains for the society smaller, by use of dump loads instead of connection to "The Grid". By having a "No program" the distributor and society are missing out on a very important part in a "National energy program" and the opportunity to promote and build a degree of energy independence.
Consumer/Producer benefits.
An easy and no frill connection to "The Grid", opens up for a general use of small electricity equipment like PV solar panels, small wind generators and micro hydro systems. The benefits for the small Consumer/Producer to grid connect are the following,
- Lowering of installation size threshold.
- No need for advanced technical skills.
- Easy plug in installation.
- No need for battery storage and the maintenance of it.
- Availability to peak usage power.
- No administrative inhibitors and hassles.
- Reasonable investment, which can be encouraged with subsidies.
- Significant cost savings over a 10 years period.
Electricity distributor benefits.
When a large number of Consumers/Producers have connected, it is quite significant possibilities for the electrical distributor. He will have the additional peak demand resources that is needed from renewable generation and reduces the very expensive exercise to start up peak demand generation. For the peak demand of air conditioning, it is as largest with intensive sun shine and the generation of solar power is at the same time at its peak. Since most small Consumer/Producer generation will deliver during day time and consume off peak time, it is a very favorable deal for the distributor. With the current rate of depletion of fossil energy resources, it will be both difficult and expensive to maintain the traditional way of generating and distributing power. New ways of using renewable resources is therefore an unavoidable future and the earlier this starts, the less will the upheavals be. The major benefits for the distributor are,
- Easier management and availability for peak demand power.
- Low cost "spill over" energy from the small Consumer/Producers.
- More efficient use of grid resources.
- Better utilization of larger power production resources.
- Stabilizing of costs.
- Capturing of market for storage needs.
- Possibility to supply energy producing products.
- Government support.
Society benefits.
The Society is responsible to act in its members interest and maybe the most important issue for mankind today is the availability to energy resources. This must be done within the State/Country availability of own resources or resources acquired from external suppliers. If the country acquires from outside resources, which is the situation in most cases today, it will be totally dependent on its trade balances and financial relations. It is quite obvious that with dwindling resources of fossil fuels and the risk for supply crisis, the responsibility must be to maximize use of local renewable energy resources and maybe force a mandating of the availability of connections to "The Grid". The values of the following are immense and must be a priority goal for any responsible government,
- Reduction of importation of energy.
- Reduction of risk for energy dependence crises.
- Energy resources for the development of the country.
- Stabilization of economic environment.
- Improvement of competitiveness.
- Improvement of social standard and security.
- Incentives and possibilities for job growth.
- Higher saving awareness.
Reduced fossil energy dependence
"The Grid" will be a corner stone for reduced use of fossil energy. The possibilities to facilitate diverse energy production and renewable energy, make it a key asset for sustainable energy solutions. "No frill" connections with easy and non complicated Consumer/Producer connections, is something that belongs to "The Best Policies" group. It has the potential to grow and automatically create a substantial renewable energy production.
If we look at current policies, many countries have complicated and extensive technical demand for connection to "The Grid". These countries are in a phase were the traditional energy interests tries to protect what they see as their business interests. The truth is that it is no real need for this and connection policies and equipment to do it are available for implementation literally tomorrow. The inhibitors are not technical and often rather short sighted and with political and financially corruptive goals.
"The Grid" could be for renewable energy solutions, what Internet became for communication. For US and other large energy users in developed countries, "The Grid" will also be used for tapping of nuclear and coal reserves (if they can get away with it). For developing countries, "The Grid" and renewable resources will be a very attractive and necessary way forward.
Hakan Falk
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