Likes Alter energy

SmartMeters.com has a post on the progress of smart grids in Denmark - Denmark Embraces the Smart Grid.

Denmark has quietly become one of the world’s smart grid leaders. With nearly twice the variable energy on the grid than any other country, Denmark has developed the prototype for a flexible, intelligent electricity system, thanks to the work of Danish technology companies, investors, system integrators, utilities, and researchers. Denmark currently integrates 34 percent renewables into the grid. …

The high penetration of wind power in the electric grid makes Denmark an ideal testing ground for optimizing power consumption of intermittent power sources. This has resulted in several projects and partnerships, such as Danish utility DONG Energy’s equity participation in California based Project Better Place’s franchise in Denmark, the first in Europe. In late 2011, the partners will launch a commercial, nationwide network of EV charging and battery swap stations.

DONG Energy consultant Torben V. Holm, explains, “We can now combine the existing electric infrastructure with batteries in electric vehicles to harvest and store wind-generated power when it is in excess supply and have it available for value creating transportation purposes when needed."

EcoGrid EU, also launching in 2001, is the largest European smart grid demonstration project, which is being implemented on the Danish island of Bornholm, where 10 percent of households will participate. By changing load pattern, the households will participate in keeping the power system stable, even though more than 50 percent of power is produced from decentralized and renewable sources. ...

Denmark’s goal is to incorporate 50 percent of electricity from wind by 2025, and to be completely fossil fuel free by 2050.

Technology Review has an article on new solid-state power-management devices which "will charge cars fast and make the power grid more flexible and efficient" - A Way to Make the Smart Grid Smarter.

New semiconductor-based devices for managing power on the grid could make the "smart grid" even smarter. They would allow electric vehicles to be charged fast and let utilities incorporate large amounts of solar and wind power without blackouts or power surges. These devices are being developed by a number of groups, including those that recently received funding from the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) and the National Science Foundation.

As utilities start to roll out the smart grid, they are focused on gathering information, such as up-to-the-minute measurements of electricity use from smart meters installed at homes and businesses. But as the smart grid progresses, theyll be adding devices, such as smart solid-state transformers, that will strengthen their control over how power flows through their lines, says Alex Huang, director of a National Research Foundation research center thats developing such devices. "If smart meters are the brains of the smart grid," he says, "devices such as solid-state transformers are the muscle." These devices could help change the grid from a system in which power flows just one way—from the power station to consumers—to one in which homeowners and businesses commonly produce power as well.

Todays transformers are single-function devices. They change the voltage of electricity from one level to another, such as stepping it down from the high voltages at which power is distributed to the 120- and 240-volt levels used in homes. The new solid-state transformers are much more flexible. They use transistors and diodes and other semiconductor-based devices that, unlike the transistors used in computer chips, are engineered to handle high power levels and very fast switching. In response to signals from a utility or a home, they can change the voltage and other characteristics of the power they produce. They can put out either AC or DC power, or take in AC and DC power from wind turbines and solar panels and change the frequency and voltage to whats needed for the grid. They have processors and communications hardware built in, allowing them to communicate with utility operators, other smart transformers, and consumers.

The devices are so flexible that researchers are still working out how to make the best use of them. There are several possibilities. Today, charging an electric vehicle at home takes many hours, even if its plugged into a special charger with 220/240-volt circuits rather than more common 110/120-volt outlets. Direct-current chargers can cut the time for charging a 24-kilowatt-hour pack like the one in the new Nissan Leaf from eight hours to just 30 minutes, but theyre inefficient, wasting about 10 to 12 percent of the power that comes in to them. The new transformers could replace these special chargers, and theyre more efficient, wasting only about 4 percent of the power, says Arindam Maitra, a senior project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute, which is developing smart transformers.

Whats more, because the transformers have communications and processing capability, if several neighbors plug in their cars to charge at the same time, the transformers can prevent circuits from being overloaded by slowing or postponing charging based on consumer preferences and price signals from the utility. The same devices can also be used to send DC power from solar panels to the grid, eliminating the need for some equipment currently used to convert the power from solar panels and leveling out fluctuations in their voltage that could otherwise cause the panels to trip off and stop producing electricity.

As power consumers such as big-box stores start to install more solar panels and energy-storage devices, smart transformers could be key to integrating power from these sources and the grid, Maitra says. Storage systems and distributed energy can allow stores to decide when to draw power from the grid and when to send power back to it, depending on the price of electricity at a given moment. Smart transformers could coordinate this potentially rapid change from buying to selling power, while keeping the grid stable and preventing neighbors lights from dimming. They could even allow people to buy electricity from their neighbors, Huang says. "If you plug in your electric car at night, you could charge it by negotiating with those in your neighborhood who have excess power," he says. "You actually pay him. You dont pay the utility."

Other kinds of devices can do many of the same things, but the idea of coordinating a large number and variety of consumer-owned devices makes utilities nervous about their ability to keep the grid stable. The new transformers would simplify the system and be utility-owned, making it easier for grid operators to keep the lights on, Maitra says.

Another potential benefit of smart transformers—or what the Electric Power Research Institute is starting to call smart-grid interfaces—is saving energy. For one thing, they can set the voltage of electricity at any given time so that it is at the minimum level appliances need to perform properly. One recent study suggested that doing this could reduce power consumption in the United States by up to 3 percent, which is equivalent to several times as much power as is now generated by all solar panels in the U.S. Even larger energy savings could be seen if smart transformers supplied DC power rather than AC to servers in data centers. Ordinarily, the servers convert the AC to DC themselves—and they do it inefficiently. (Other inefficient conversions, too, are involved in the uninterruptable power supply.) A recent demonstration of such a system by Duke Energy, a large utility company, and the Electric Power Research Institute found that supplying DC could cut power consumption at data centers by about 15 percent.

Smart Grid News has a jaundiced look at the luddite backlash against smart meters - The fruits of smart meter phobia.

OK, so you dont want a wireless smart meter on the side of your house because youre sure, despite copious scientific evidence to the contrary, that its radio frequency emissions are going to kill you.

Well, after organizing and making your intentions clear, you have won. Congratulations! You can have it your way and keep the darn thing off your house. One small catch, though: youll cost a lot more money to support so youll have to pay extra.

Were working on modernizing the grid so it can support greatly increased amounts of intermittent wind and solar energy. Were trying to reduce our use of, and dependence on, fossil fuels, which will make our world a healthier place by far. Smart meters have an important role to play by giving utilities a better picture of near-real time energy demand, as well as the means to manage demand during periods of peak consumption.

So, about that cell phone you press against your head? And the computer screens you stare at all day. And the WiFi router that forms your home network. And the microwave thats running sometimes while you tidy up in the kitchen. Youve tolerated, if not embraced, modernization of other sectors of the economy. Please be a bit more consistent with your fears and let us get on with our work.