When a cousin of Mark Twain’s took ill and died in 1897, it was mistakenly thought by entire throngs of gossipers, cynics and fans that Twain himself had passed on, prompting his famous “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” quotation.
I couldn’t help but think of that quotation when Baltimore Gas and Electric had the proverbial “head” of their smart metering program handed back to them on a shiny regulatory platter last week by the state of Maryland.
Was this a problem for the smart grid? Sure. Was it the end? Should it be looked upon as a death knell? Should we be asking smart grid programs if the bell tolls for them? Nah.
What happened? Well, we had a little setback. That’s for darn sure. We thought we had all the smart grid ducks quacking and walking along together in a neat little row. We thought it was all set, everyone was on board, and we were good to jump---in one big ol’ happy group---into the smart grid pond. But, we learned, instead, that some of our ducks were wandering astray, some had stopped dead in the path and decided to sit this one out and some had simply found the pond just too darn cold.
Maryland definitely found the water too cold. The New York Times reported that the cost of deploying approximately 1.36 million electric meters and 730,000 gas meters and related technology in that Baltimore Gas and Electric program would have clocked in at nearly $835 million, about $200 million of which would have come from a DOE grant. The Public Service Commission (PSC), however, was more worried about where the remaining $635 million might come from---namely a surcharge on customers. And, so, they turned the utility down.
Baltimore Gas and Electric stated they were “shocked” at the decision, but it seems rather odd to be shocked that a PSC would balk at raising consumer bills. It’s pretty common for PSCs to be rather difficult to navigate for rate increases, even ones that are supported by evidence of necessity.
While Constellation, the parent company for Baltimore Gas and Electric, was willing to kick in about $280 million of stakeholder money, the PSC still didn’t want to put a burden on the customer. And, unfortunately, that’s how they saw this program---as a financial burden and a bit of tech folly that wasn’t necessary for the future.
And, that denial was the shot heard round the world, effectively drawing out speculation in articles, blogs and conferences that this would mean the end to all smart grid programs---that it has been discovered that the smart grid was a type of boondoggle normally reserved for the Old West days of snake oil salesmen.
It is true that Baltimore’s program could collapse under this denial. The regrouping may not happen for them, but that doesn’t mean that the smart grid overall is ready for burial. That doesn’t mean we are out of ducks, you might say. We still have lots of ducks, and many of them aren’t so afraid of a cold pond.
Today, Duke Energy announced it has signed an agreement with Cisco to pilot and further develop a smart grid-enabled home energy management solution that will provide Duke Energy customers with secure and reliable energy information and a simple-to-use tool to help them reduce the amount of energy wasted in their homes.
This week, Texas-New Mexico Power has selected SmartSynch’s Residential SmartMeter solution for a 231,000 unit point-to-point deployment to residential customers throughout the utility’s Texas market, which will mark the first mass residential deployment of smart metering solutions that use a public wireless network as the communications backbone.
Last week, Elster and Webster Electric Cooperative, a locally owned and governed not-for-profit cooperative in Marshfield, Missouri announced they will work together on a metering project featuring Elster’s EnergyAxis AMI Smart Grid solution to replace the co-op’s existing self-read electric meter base. Webster Electric Cooperative plans to deploy 18,500 EnergyAxis smart meters between July and December 2010.
So, while it’s both prudent and healthy to reexamine our systems, plans and motivations with Baltimore’s big smart grid setback---to tweak a few things here and there---it’s a bit too early to be placing that bucket out front of the industry and whispering that the smart grid needs to give a big ol’ boot to that five-gallon container.
The smart grid ain’t dead yet.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Walking a Problematic PATH
Transmission gets ignored, put upon, forgotten, quietly doing an important and thankless gig---that is, until a line needs to be built near our homes. Then, power transmission is evil technology, HAL of the electric world (stretch back to that last “2001: A Space Odyssey” viewing). Then, transmission is intent on our physical destruction (with EMF) or our economic downfall (thinking that towers/lines/poles will decrease property value). Then, transmission is our enemy. We want the power, but we hate the transmission.
And, thinking transmission is our enemy makes the act of siting a line nearly impossible. It takes a lot of money and the patience of a Buddhist, mountain-top guru. There are regulatory hurdles, tech hurdles, geography hurdles, consumer hurdles. It’s a tough path to walk, even for a simple project like PATH.
PATH stands for Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, a joint venture of American Electric Power (AEP) and Allegheny Energy to build a new high-voltage interstate transmission line from West Virginia to Maryland. Specifically, the project is a 765-kilovolt transmission line extending approximately 275 miles from the Amos Substation in Putnam County, W.Va., to the proposed Kemptown Substation southeast of New Market, Md. The project also includes a new Welton Spring Substation along the proposed route in northwest Hardy County, W.Va.
This project was approved---even deemed necessary---by the local grid operator, PJM, way back in 2007. It’s a mere 275 miles. Out here in flat plains country, that’s a bit less than a four-hour drive, what we would term “a spit in a bucket.”
Yet, that project has hit all sorts of issues, despite being inside a government-designated National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. (You remember those. They were supposed to make transmission siting a super snap, as fast as driving the length needed. Approval in no time flat.)
There have been nasty rumors which have been repeatedly denied by the companies/parties involved, including:
“I’ve heard that PATH is only being constructed to transport power to New Jersey and none of the electricity will supply our region. Is that true?”
I’m also hearing that you’re only building this line so you can sell more power from coal-fired power plants in the Midwest to electric users in the Northeast.”
Those rumors got so heated that they are responded to on the project’s website under the frequently asked questions section.
And there have been regulatory setbacks, too. It needed to wander about 20 miles into Maryland. Maryland didn’t wish to be wandered upon and said, “No way,” setting the projecting back about a year. West Virginia and Virginia took similar regulatory high roads, projecting buckets and boatloads of demands before agreeing to even think about the project.
One of those demands was, in fact, a new study on demand, electricity demand. Basically, those regulators wanted to know if such a line was really needed. Now it looks like they might hear things (in a hearing-type format) in January (yes, January 2011) and that the project might get word of a decision by May 2011.
Remember how those corridors were supposed to make siting fly by? Like, in a blink of an eye? Remember?
Anyway, back to the story. This week, the PATH stakeholders said, “Hey, by the way, we need this line to be up and running by 2015 in order to meet rising demand.”
According to a note released late last week, an analysis conducted as part of PJM’s 2010 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan supports previous studies about the line’s necessity.
“All analysis to date indicates that the PATH project remains the most robust and effective means to ensure the long-term reliability of the PJM grid,” said Steven R. Herling, Vice President of Planning, PJM.
Whether PJM’s solemn word on the subject will be good enough for regulators in West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland remains to be seen---most likely until January 2011. At that time, PATH will be verging on four years in limbo. By the decision process in May, they’ll have another four years to build before that PJM 2015 deadline.
The question is: Will PATH really have four years to completion or will another round of rumors and regulation stall more transmission coming to the Northeast?
Whether you want you power through coal, nuclear or renewables, that sizzle has to have a path to get to the consumer. Here’s hoping this PATH paves the way for more, if all parties involved can invoke the patience of those Buddhist mountain-top gurus until the project finally gets the OK to put rubber (or, in this case, steel) to the scenic byways.
Cross your fingers for 2011.
And, thinking transmission is our enemy makes the act of siting a line nearly impossible. It takes a lot of money and the patience of a Buddhist, mountain-top guru. There are regulatory hurdles, tech hurdles, geography hurdles, consumer hurdles. It’s a tough path to walk, even for a simple project like PATH.
PATH stands for Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, a joint venture of American Electric Power (AEP) and Allegheny Energy to build a new high-voltage interstate transmission line from West Virginia to Maryland. Specifically, the project is a 765-kilovolt transmission line extending approximately 275 miles from the Amos Substation in Putnam County, W.Va., to the proposed Kemptown Substation southeast of New Market, Md. The project also includes a new Welton Spring Substation along the proposed route in northwest Hardy County, W.Va.
This project was approved---even deemed necessary---by the local grid operator, PJM, way back in 2007. It’s a mere 275 miles. Out here in flat plains country, that’s a bit less than a four-hour drive, what we would term “a spit in a bucket.”
Yet, that project has hit all sorts of issues, despite being inside a government-designated National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. (You remember those. They were supposed to make transmission siting a super snap, as fast as driving the length needed. Approval in no time flat.)
There have been nasty rumors which have been repeatedly denied by the companies/parties involved, including:
“I’ve heard that PATH is only being constructed to transport power to New Jersey and none of the electricity will supply our region. Is that true?”
I’m also hearing that you’re only building this line so you can sell more power from coal-fired power plants in the Midwest to electric users in the Northeast.”
Those rumors got so heated that they are responded to on the project’s website under the frequently asked questions section.
And there have been regulatory setbacks, too. It needed to wander about 20 miles into Maryland. Maryland didn’t wish to be wandered upon and said, “No way,” setting the projecting back about a year. West Virginia and Virginia took similar regulatory high roads, projecting buckets and boatloads of demands before agreeing to even think about the project.
One of those demands was, in fact, a new study on demand, electricity demand. Basically, those regulators wanted to know if such a line was really needed. Now it looks like they might hear things (in a hearing-type format) in January (yes, January 2011) and that the project might get word of a decision by May 2011.
Remember how those corridors were supposed to make siting fly by? Like, in a blink of an eye? Remember?
Anyway, back to the story. This week, the PATH stakeholders said, “Hey, by the way, we need this line to be up and running by 2015 in order to meet rising demand.”
According to a note released late last week, an analysis conducted as part of PJM’s 2010 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan supports previous studies about the line’s necessity.
“All analysis to date indicates that the PATH project remains the most robust and effective means to ensure the long-term reliability of the PJM grid,” said Steven R. Herling, Vice President of Planning, PJM.
Whether PJM’s solemn word on the subject will be good enough for regulators in West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland remains to be seen---most likely until January 2011. At that time, PATH will be verging on four years in limbo. By the decision process in May, they’ll have another four years to build before that PJM 2015 deadline.
The question is: Will PATH really have four years to completion or will another round of rumors and regulation stall more transmission coming to the Northeast?
Whether you want you power through coal, nuclear or renewables, that sizzle has to have a path to get to the consumer. Here’s hoping this PATH paves the way for more, if all parties involved can invoke the patience of those Buddhist mountain-top gurus until the project finally gets the OK to put rubber (or, in this case, steel) to the scenic byways.
Cross your fingers for 2011.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Amsterdam Brings New/Old Views on Climate Change
The Dutch eat some unusual things for my American tastes---the herring being just the beginning. I've found that I'm not a fan of their "between the bread" options, which usually involve raw salmon or too much mayo or too many onions. So, I readily admit, after a week of Dutch conference catering, I am not a fan of the Dutch sandwich.
But, I am a fan of Dutch innovation and initiatives. And, today, I got to see one in person: Amsterdam's Smart City Climate Street project.
Behind the front doors of the shops, cafes, and restaurants of Utrechtstraat is a push toward the efficient, the effective and the sustainable. This, specifically, is the Climate Street project, but that project is just one of many within the Amsterdam Smart City plan, with its total of 15 various projects pushing sustainable living, working and mobility.
The total projects making up Amsterdam's Smart City planning are well past the second phase, with a third phase scheduled for Sept. 2010 and completion in line for 2011. Despite how organized and engineering focused it all sounds, the projects began on the less static end of things, with what the group labels "the entrepreneurs."
"You can over-engineer smart city programs," stated Maikel van Verseveld, a partner with Accenture (a company that, in turn, partners with Smart City) in an interview during the POWERGRID Europe 2010 conference. "Amsterdam Smart City has been under-engineered from the start."
That might sound a bit scary---under-engineering a tech project---but thinking from the standpoint of the consumer, both residential and retail, has helped them build real enthusiasm for the projects involved in Amsterdam Smart City, according to van Verseveld and Ilse van den Breemer, the project manager sustainability for the Amsterdam Innovation Motor (another Smart City partner).
"You can design things to death," van Verseveld continued, stating that boundaries need to be pushed on the social/societal end of things for projects to really push change. It helps find middle ground and foster real adaptation.
One area on the cusp of that boundary, that edge of adaptation is Climate Street in Amsterdam, where a group of retailers, store owners, bar and restaurant owners came together to prove that the technologies of climate change (solar, EVs, energy scans) can be very useful to the end-user as well as a municipality.
Climate Street is a collection of about 140 entrepreneurs split down the middle, pretty much, between bars/restaurants and shops. Construction on the projects along the street began in September 2009 and will continue past its original end date (December of this year) into 2011.
"The entrepreneurs wanted to do something positive," said Maaike Osieck, manger of communications with Amsterdam Smart City at a personal POWERGRID Europe tour of the area. "They started this push to do something sustainable in the area."
The group along Climate Street have been participating in small pilots and tests for awhile now with a larger rollout to begin within a few months. One participant, a fabulous five-building music store called Concerto, saw a 43% savings in energy (specifically with lighting) with their first pilot attempt.
As Climate Street and the overall Amsterdam Smart City projects move closer to completion, it will show the world just how new technologies can push into old corners of an old town and change culture from within.
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