Power Breaks, Try Smart City Grid, Austin Texas or Boulder Col.?

by SOLARLIFE | December 16, 2008 at 05:55 am

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Solar Life a reality in Smart City

Popular science from DER conference
Integration of Renewables, Nice 12-2008

Local, DGAs run the City power not banks
DGA = Distributed Generation Association
Austin Texas Smart grid city, Dec 2008

Austin power On the road to smart grid

ON - Site Energy systems, power break safe

Taking a wide view of the electric grid of the future — one that will likely see increased demand from electrified cars — Mr. Duncan envisions a triangle of consumption and production, its three points being the utility; homes and buildings; and the transportation sector.

In the old model, Mr. Duncan said, the utility simply produced the electricity, delivering it over transmission lines to commercial and residential customers who used it.

“And then you had a transportation sector completely disconnected that ran off petroleum,” he said.

Now, the utility and its customers are developing a much more symbiotic relationship, with more and more homes and businesses, for instance, placing solar panels on their rooftops, allowing them to generate energy that utilities can purchase and redistribute. Essentially, said Mr. Duncan, utilities and customers alike are becoming both consumers and producers of electricity.

Meanwhile, the the transportation sector is slowly becoming part of the electricity equation.

Austin, Texas -- "CLEAN ENERGY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD ?

Local power security, climate plan low C02
Right now you may be wondering: What's a smart grid? (((No, you're probably wondering "How come my city doesn't own my local power provider, instead of those useless bancrupt banksSmart grids, you may recall, are one of the core elements of the Grand Climate Plan.

The Austin Smart Grid might incorporate this features:

    * The ability to move power from point-to-point in a distributed fashion. Say half the buildings in your neighborhood have solar panels, the other half have wind turbines, and all of them own plug-in hybrid automobiles. With a smart grid, power can be moved from wherever it's being produced to wherever it's needed, and excess can be stored in the plug-ins' batteries to be drawn down later when demand is at a peak.

    * The ability to fine tune demand. Imagine that rather than just plugging in and sucking power, your appliances communicate with the grid to coordinate their power consumption. For example, all 600 refrigerators in your neighborhood won't decide to run their compressors at the same time. (((I wonder why it's always about the refrigerators. People replace their refrigerators maybe once every 8 years. Refrigerators are not real futuristic.)))

    * The ability to fine tune rates. Another way to adjust demand is to make power cheaper when demand is lowest, and vice versa.

    * The ability to send power long distances. This capability is critical to bringing renewable energy to places that don't have ready access to supply.

Source: blog.wired.com

Austinenergy.com: CHP (combined heat and power)
Distributed Generation and Building Cooling - Heating - Power (CHP)

Distributed Generation Services
On-Site Power Production Is More Feasible Today than Ever Before
Small-scale technologies such as micro turbines, combustion turbines, and fuel cells are used at or on a site close to your business. These small modular power generation units generate electricity at your site while using the Austin Energy power grid as back up.

Services Provided by Austin Energy
After an initial site assessment to determine your needs, our Energy Products team installs, operates and maintains the latest versions of micro turbines, fuel cells, combustion turbines, and interconnecting switchgear necessary to equip your building for distributed generation. This service may be a cost-effective enhancement to your electrical service provided by Austin Energy.

Distributed Generation and Building Cooling - Heating - Power (CHP)

Boulder Colorado Smart grid city

what would happen if, using vehicle to grid (V2G) technology, you plugged thousands of PHEVs and different energy sources, such as solar and wind, into the grid and made them work together?

Transformation of existing metering infrastructure to a robust, dynamic electric system communications network, providing real-time, high-speed, two-way communication throughout the distribution grid" and "integration of infrastructure to support easily dispatched distributed generation technologies (such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid technology; battery systems; wind turbines; and solar panels)" among others

Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states. Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis. More information is available at www.xcelenergy.com.

Smart grid city and electric hybrid cars

A number of technologies will be offered within Smart Grid City, including:

Transformation of existing metering infrastructure to a robust, dynamic communications network, providing real time, high-speed, two-way communication throughout the distribution grid.

Conversion of substations to “smart” substations capable of remote monitoring, near real-time data and optimized performance.

Installation of thousands of in-home control devices and the necessary systems to fully automate home energy use.

Integration of infrastructure to support up to 1,000 easily dispatched distributed generation technologies (including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid technology; battery systems; wind turbines; and solar panels).