The Role of Non-Utility Service Providers in Smart Grid Development

The Role of Non-Utility Service Providers in Smart Grid Development
Author: Andreas Wokutch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

Enormous commercial interest surrounds the idea of modernizing the U.S. electric grid via modern digital technology, more commonly known as creating the 'smart grid.' This interest has resulted in tremendous public and private investment in the smart grid, leading to the development of many products and services that promise to transform and modernize the grid in myriad ways. However, these avenues of modernization significantly complicate the regulation of the electric grid by blurring jurisdictional boundaries that already lacked clarity. As a result, regulators are less able to quickly and adequately address issues that arise with smart grid development. This Comment analyzes one such issue: the lack of clear jurisdictional authority to regulate the direct interactions between consumers and non-utility companies that offer smart grid products and services ('non-utility service providers' or 'NUSPs'). This lack of regulatory authority is significant because inadequate oversight of these interactions raises substantial security and privacy concerns. Accordingly, this Comment analyzes this issue in Part I by giving a brief overview of what smart grid development entails. Part II explains the security and privacy concerns of NUSPs developing the smart grid by interacting directly with consumers, and determines that these concerns are substantial enough to require regulation. Part III explores which entities have authority to regulate these interactions and determines that none do. Lastly, Part IV analyzes which entity should be given authority to regulate NUSP-consumer interactions, and concludes that the most appropriate solution is to extend the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's ('FERC') current jurisdictional authority.

The Smart Grid as an Application Development Platform

The Smart Grid as an Application Development Platform
Author: George Koutitas
Publisher: Artech House
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2017-08-31
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1630814911

This authoritative new resource explores the power grid from its classical role as a utility or service provider towards its new role as an application development platform. This book gives insight into the vision, problems and solutions, and risks of the smart grid model. The evolution of the power grid as it develops into an application-centric environment is explained in this book. This resource guides readers to better understand the primary motivation of the smart grid, and to explore how new technologies are creating a cleaner and more sustainable ecosystem for new business models to blossom. Key topics include the basics of electricity and the conventional grid structure, as well as the relationships between conventional economic models and emerging models based on transactive energy and the sharing economy. This book presents the orchestration of smart grid technologies as they are transforming the utility sector toward a human-centric grid. Readers gain insight into how they are playing an active role in the operation of the utility business as well as in the transfer of electrons. This book demonstrates how the new smart grid is becoming a distributed system that supports decentralized services through modern trends and distributed system architectures. Readers learn how grid intelligence and energy production migrates to the edge of the network. This book explores how consumers are transformed to “prosumers” of energy and providers of critical data that are dramatically changing the relationship with the electric utility business in order to enable new applications and services.

Pathways to a Smarter Power System

Pathways to a Smarter Power System
Author: Ozan Erdinc
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2019-04-23
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0081025939

Pathways to a Smarter Power System studies different concepts within smart grids that are used in both industry and system regulators (e.g. distribution and transmission system operators) and research. This book covers these concepts from multiple perspectives and in multiple contexts, presenting detailed technical information on renewable energy systems, distributed generation and energy storage units, methods to activate the demand side of power systems, market structure needs, and advanced planning concepts and new operational requirements, specifically for power system protection, technological evolvements, and requirements regarding technology in ICT, power electronics and control areas. This book provides energy researchers and engineers with an indispensable guide on how to apply wider perspectives to the different technological and conceptual requirements of a smarter power system. - Includes concepts regarding conceptual and technological needs and investment planning suggestions for smart grid enabling strategies - Contains new electric power system operational concepts required by industry, along with R&D studies addressing new solutions to potential operational problems - Covers pathways to smarter power systems from successful existing examples to expected short, medium and long-term possibilities

Smart Grids

Smart Grids
Author: Stuart Borlase
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 611
Release: 2017-12-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1351833723

What exactly is smart grid? Why is it receiving so much attention? What are utilities, vendors, and regulators doing about it? Answering these questions and more, Smart Grids: Infrastructure, Technology, and Solutions gives readers a clearer understanding of the drivers and infrastructure of one of the most talked-about topics in the electric utility market—smart grid. This book brings together the knowledge and views of a vast array of experts and leaders in their respective fields. Key Features Describes the impetus for change in the electric utility industry Discusses the business drivers, benefits, and market outlook of the smart grid initiative Examines the technical framework of enabling technologies and smart solutions Identifies the role of technology developments and coordinated standards in smart grid, including various initiatives and organizations helping to drive the smart grid effort Presents both current technologies and forward-looking ideas on new technologies Discusses barriers and critical factors for a successful smart grid from a utility, regulatory, and consumer perspective Summarizes recent smart grid initiatives around the world Discusses the outlook of the drivers and technologies for the next-generation smart grid Smart grid is defined not in terms of what it is, but what it achieves and the benefits it brings to the utility, consumer, society, and environment. Exploring the current situation and future challenges, the book provides a global perspective on how the smart grid integrates twenty-first-century technology with the twentieth-century power grid. CRC Press Authors Speak Stuart Borlase speaks about his book. Watch the video

Sustainable Networks in Smart Grid

Sustainable Networks in Smart Grid
Author: B.D. Deebak
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2022-03-26
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0323856276

Sustainable Networks in Smart Grid presents global challenges in smart metering with renewable energy resources, micro-grid design, communication technologies, big data, privacy and security in the smart grid. Providing an overview of different available PLC technologies and configurations and their applications in different sectors, this book provides case studies and practical implementation details of smart grid technology, paying special attention to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) scenarios with the presence of Distribution Grid (DG) and Electric Vehicles (EV). Covering regulatory policies for energy storage, management strategies for microgrid operation, and key performance indicators for smart grid development, this reference compiles up-to-date information on different aspects of the Internet of Smart Metering. In addition, innovative contributions on Data Analytics, Energy Theft Detection, Data-Driven Framework, Blockchain–IoT-enabled Sensor Networks, and Smart Contacts in the Blockchain are also included. - Includes case studies and practical implementation examples of different smart grid applications, their benefits, characteristics and requirements - Provides a SWOT analysis of the impact of recent regulatory changes on the business case for energy storage (ES) - Presents a comprehensive survey of privacy-preserving schemes for smart grid communications

Smart Power

Smart Power
Author: Peter Fox-Penner
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2010-04-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781597267069

A new national policy on climate change is under debate in the United States and is likely to result in a cap on greenhouse gas emissions for utilities. This and other developments will prompt utilities to undergo the largest changes in their history. Smart Power examines the many facets of this unprecedented transformation. This enlightening book begins with a look back on the deregulatory efforts of the 1990s and their gradual replacement by concerns over climate change, promoting new technologies, and developing stable prices and supplies. In thorough but non-technical terms it explains the revolutionary changes that the Smart Grid is bringing to utility operations. It also examines the options for low-carbon emissions along with the real-world challenges the industry and its regulators must face as the industry retools and finances its new sources and systems. Throughout the book, Peter Fox-Penner provides insights into the policy choices and regulatory reform needed to face these challenges. He not only weighs the costs and benefits of every option, but presents interviews with informed experts, including economists, utility CEOs, and engineers. He gives a brief history of the development of the current utility business model and examines possible new business models that are focused on energy efficiency. Smart Power explains every aspect of the coming energy revolution for utilities in lively prose that will captivate even the most techno-phobic readers.

Regulatory Pathways For Smart Grid Development in China

Regulatory Pathways For Smart Grid Development in China
Author: Gert Brunekreeft
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2015-06-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3658084634

The study’s recommendations describe institutional elements in the context of electric power sector regulation and has the objective to increase the understanding of the interdependencies of the institutional elements. In future work, the study results might be employed for designing very specific regulatory policies. The recommendations developed in this study focus primarily on the regulatory framework for smart grids and contains a quite detailed description of how the German electricity markets evolved. It also focuses on the effects of ambitiously expanding generation capacities of renewable energy sources (RES) on established electricity markets. The presented evidence will provide insights on how the regulatory framework in China could be designed to foster smart grids developments in the context of establishing electricity markets and expanding RES generation capacities.

The Power of Change

The Power of Change
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2016-09-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309371422

Electricity, supplied reliably and affordably, is foundational to the U.S. economy and is utterly indispensable to modern society. However, emissions resulting from many forms of electricity generation create environmental risks that could have significant negative economic, security, and human health consequences. Large-scale installation of cleaner power generation has been generally hampered because greener technologies are more expensive than the technologies that currently produce most of our power. Rather than trade affordability and reliability for low emissions, is there a way to balance all three? The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies considers how to speed up innovations that would dramatically improve the performance and lower the cost of currently available technologies while also developing new advanced cleaner energy technologies. According to this report, there is an opportunity for the United States to continue to lead in the pursuit of increasingly clean, more efficient electricity through innovation in advanced technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies makes the case that America's advantagesâ€"world-class universities and national laboratories, a vibrant private sector, and innovative states, cities, and regions that are free to experiment with a variety of public policy approachesâ€"position the United States to create and lead a new clean energy revolution. This study focuses on five paths to accelerate the market adoption of increasing clean energy and efficiency technologies: (1) expanding the portfolio of cleaner energy technology options; (2) leveraging the advantages of energy efficiency; (3) facilitating the development of increasing clean technologies, including renewables, nuclear, and cleaner fossil; (4) improving the existing technologies, systems, and infrastructure; and (5) leveling the playing field for cleaner energy technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies is a call for leadership to transform the United States energy sector in order to both mitigate the risks of greenhouse gas and other pollutants and to spur future economic growth. This study's focus on science, technology, and economic policy makes it a valuable resource to guide support that produces innovation to meet energy challenges now and for the future.

Smart and Power Grid Systems – Design Challenges and Paradigms

Smart and Power Grid Systems – Design Challenges and Paradigms
Author: Kolla Bhanu Prakash
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2023-03-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000795144

The Smart Grid represents an unprecedented opportunity to move the energy industry into a new era of reliability, availability, and efficiency that will contribute to our economic and environmental health. During the transition period, it will be critical to carry out testing, technology improvements, consumer education, development of standards and regulations, and information sharing between projects to ensure that the benefits we envision from the Smart Grid become a reality. Today, an electricity disruption such as a blackout can have a domino effect—a series of failures that can affect banking, communications, traffic, and security. This is a particular threat in the winter, when homeowners can be left without heat. A smarter grid will add resiliency to our electric power system and make it better prepared to address emergencies such as severe storms, earthquakes, large solar flares, and terrorist attacks. Because of its two-way interactive capacity, the Smart Grid will allow for automatic rerouting when equipment fails or outages occur. This will minimize outages and minimize the effects when they do happen. When a power outage occurs, Smart Grid technologies will detect and isolate the outages, containing them before they become large-scale blackouts. The new technologies will also help ensure that electricity recovery resumes quickly and strategically after an emergency—routing electricity to emergency services first, for example. In addition, the Smart Grid will take greater advantage of customer-owned power generators to produce power when it is not available from utilities. By combining these "distributed generation" resources, a community could keep its health center, police department, traffic lights, phone system, and grocery stores operating during emergencies. In addition, the Smart Grid is a way to address an aging energy infrastructure that needs to be upgraded or replaced. This book shows that Smart Grids can address energy efficiency, to bring increased awareness to consumers about the connection between electricity use and the environment, bring increased national security to our energy system—drawing on greater amounts of home-grown electricity that is more resistant to natural disasters and attack.

Smart Grids

Smart Grids
Author: David Bakken
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 470
Release: 2014-05-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1482206110

The utilization of sensors, communications, and computer technologies to create greater efficiency in the generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of electricity will enable better management of the electric power system. As the use of smart grid technologies grows, utilities will be able to automate meter reading and billing and consumers will be more aware of their energy usage and the associated costs. The results will require utilities and their suppliers to develop new business models, strategies, and processes. With an emphasis on reducing costs and improving return on investment (ROI) for utilities, Smart Grids: Clouds, Communications, Open Source, and Automation explores the design and implementation of smart grid technologies, considering the benefits to consumers as well as businesses. Focusing on industrial applications, the text: Provides a state-of-the-art account of the smart grid Explains how smart grid technologies are currently being used Includes detailed examples and test cases for real-life implementation Discusses trade-offs associated with the utilization of smart grid technologies Describes smart grid simulation software and offers insight into the future of the smart grid The electric power grid is in the early stages of a sea of change. Nobody knows which business models will survive, but companies heeding the lessons found in Smart Grids: Clouds, Communications, Open Source, and Automation might just increase their chances for success.