A review of microgrid development in the United States – A decade of progress on policies, demonstrations, controls, and software tools

Microgrids have become increasingly popular in the United States. Supported by favorable federal and local policies, microgrid projects can provide greater energy stability and resilience within a project site or community. This paper reviews major federal, state, and utility-level policies driving microgrid development in the United States. Representative U.S. demonstration projects are selected and their technical characteristics and non-technical features are introduced. The paper discusses trends in the technology development of microgrid systems as well as microgrid control methods and interactions within the electricity market. Software tools for microgrid design, planning, and performance analysis are illustrated with each tool's core capability. Finally, the paper summarizes the successes and lessons learned during the recent expansion of the U.S. microgrid industry that may serve as a reference for other countries developing their own microgrid industries

Challenges in Energy Awareness: a Swedish case of heating consumption in households

An efficient and sustainable energy system is an important factor when minimising the environmental impact caused by the cities. We have worked with questions on how to construct a more direct connection between customers-­‐citizens and a provider of district heating for negotiating notions of comfort in relation to heating and hot tap water use. In this paper we present visualisation concepts of such connections and reflect on the outcomes in terms of the type of data needed for sustainability assessment, as well as the methods explored for channelling information on individual consumption and environmental impact between customers and the provider of district heating. We have defined challenges in sustainable design for consumer behaviour change in the case of reducing heat and hot water consumption in individual households: (1) The problematic relation between individual behaviour steering and system level district heating, (2) The complexity of environmental impact as indicator for behaviour change, and (3) Ethical considerations concerning the role of the designer

Status of grid scale energy storage and strategies for accelerating cost effective deployment

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-96).The development of emerging grid scale energy storage technologies offers great potential to improve the architecture and operation of the electrical grid. This is especially important in the face of increased reliance on clean, dependable electricity and with the influx of renewable generation and smart grid technology. However, at the present, grid scale energy storage is still in an early, developing stage. This document brings together a broad overview of the sector, including rough revenue estimates for each individually possible application for energy storage, a high level overview including rough cost estimates of each technology and supplier, a more focused look at the actual or possible implementations in the market with rough estimates of the systems' economics in each implementation. Following this is a discussion of notable dynamics and potentially effective strategies, based on current industry conditions and existing academic management frameworks. The investigation was accomplished by leveraging prior research in existing literature, and extending it with first hand discussions with industry leaders and market analysis. It was found that the economics of wholesale load shifting are unattractive for any of the emerging energy storage technologies, but that all of the other higher value implementations considered could be reasonably expected to at least break even financially given proper circumstances and the use of an energy storage technology which suits the implementation well. It was found that lithium ion and zinc-bromine flow batteries are well positioned for near term economically beneficial deployment on the grid.(cont.) Many other technologies exist and are being developed to address these same markets, but are unlikely to be cost effective in the near term. It was also found that government regulation has played and will continue to play a major role in the deployment of energy storage on the grid.by John Kluza.S.M.in Engineering and Managemen

Smart Electric Vehicle Charging considering Discounts for Customer Flexibility

The expansion of large-scale charging infrastructure is crucial to cope with growing shares of electric vehicles. However, operators often struggle with profitable operation due to volatile occupancy and high costs for peaks in charging demand. Using information and communication technology may enable smart charging and thereby profitable operation by addressing the challenge of costly peak demand but requires customer flexibility to shift and manage charging processes. Therefore, operators must offer discounts on charging prices for customers to provide flexibility, which in turn mark an additional cost. Here we provide a model to analyze whether the costs to allocate flexibility exceed cost savings through smart charging. The model is evaluated in a case study of a large-scale charging park with real-world data on highway traffic and charging station usage. The results indicate that smart charging can provide net benefits even if operators are required to offer discounts for charging flexibility

A Review on the Customer Role in Smart Service Co-Creation

In the course of digital servitization and the introduction of smart services, the provider-customer relationship in manufacturing industries is changing. The cooperation between providers and customers, which is also referred to as co-creation in research, can have a positive impact on the value creation of both parties in the various development phases of smart service. Co-creation is understood as a two-way communication in which providers and customers can exchange their resources, for example in the form of knowledge and skills. However, so far research has focused on the role of the provider in this constellation. Through a systematic literature review, this article examines the role of customers within industrial smart services. Four core areas could be identified within co-creation. These are discussed in the context of existing paradoxes and it is shown that the customer perspective should be given equal consideration in future research

Vanishing Power Lines and Emerging Distributed Generation

Experts predict that distributed energy will contribute as much as twenty percent of the U.S. power supply by 2020. While no one will wake up tomorrow morning to an entirely new energy distribution system — complete with solar panels on the roof and a wind turbine in the back yard — distributed generation is receiving significant attention as the disruptive technology that will ultimately revolutionize the way energy is delivered in the United States. The reason for this shift is, in part, due to new technology that allows for more flexible localized generation of energy, and in part due to a changing climate resulting in frequent and violent storms that destroy large-scale energy infrastructure. A variety of distributed energy technologies are available today, including solar photovoltaic panels, battery storage, and micro turbines. These innovative technologies are not only appealing to today’s tech-savvy customers they are also becoming more economically accessible to the average customer. This shift in customer behavior will directly threaten the current energy delivery model. The more customers utilize distributed generation the less customers rely upon the transmission grid. Remaining customers will bear a higher burden of the transmission costs. The higher the cost of electricity to the remaining customers, the more likely those customers will seek out on-site generation as well. It could result in a vicious cycle for an unprepared utility company. Another significant threat to the current energy delivery system is climate change. Increased ambient air temperatures, increased (and more severe) storms, flooding, and sea level rise have all exposed the vulnerabilities in the traditional central energy delivery system. For example, transmission infrastructure and generation facilities are vulnerable to physical damage during storms, fires, and floods, and they operate less efficiently in hotter temperatures. Distributed generation is emerging as a viable alternative that is less susceptible to these changing weather patterns, in part because it utilizes little to no transmission infrastructure and the generation facilities are located on-site, or near the end user. Utilities and regulatory agencies will need to develop a more sustainable energy delivery system in the face of these climate and technological changes. Given that distributed generation appears to be a “culprit” in disrupting the traditional energy delivery model as well as a potential “solution” to a new, more sustainable, model, the focus should, at least in part, be on the flexible inclusion of distributed generation. Unfortunately, in recent years, energy laws and policies—such as Renewable Portfolio Standards and Multi Value Project policies—have instead promoted and facilitated large-scale energy development, resulting in billions of dollars being spent on unsustainable energy delivery systems. Policymakers will need to work to undo these damaging policies

EFFICIENT USE OF BEHAVIORAL TOOLS TO REDUCE ELECTRICITY DEMAND OF DOMESTIC CONSUMERS

Purpose: The present study investigated the main literature on the subject of methods and policies for reducing the electricity demand of domestic consumers, in order to identify the place of behavioral tools.Methodology: We used secondary sources, performing a literature review, together with analysis and synthesis. Findings: Policy makers prefer to use tools offered by neoclassical economics, such as various forms of taxation, fines and financial incentives in order to make domestic electricity consumers save electricity, on the assumption that consumers will make rational decisions while maximizing their personal benefit. However, studies conducted in recent years in the field of behavioral economics, which are based on the assumption that consumers’ decisions are not rational and are affected by cognitive biases, showed that the use of behavioral tools, such as detailed online information (feedback),social comparison information, information on varying rates (dynamic pricing) and general information (advertising campaign), are tools that are not less appropriate than the ones the neoclassical economics offers, mainly because electricity is an invisible product and consumers are unable to assess it by normal cognitive measures. Using an interdisciplinary combination of behavioral tools that come from a variety of approaches taken from a wide variety of different academic fields, it is possible to receive efficient results in the endeavor of reducing electricity demand. Implications: Although the neoclassical economics still remains the fundamental theory used by policymakers, it is recommended to consider behavioral economics as a complementary approach to the neoclassical economics, and combine behavioral tools in the policymakers’ toolbox, especially when those tools do not require a significant financial investment, thus efficiently maximizing the reduction of electricity demand among domestic consumers. These theoretical results will be used for designing future empirical researches on the efficiency of behavioral tools in changing the pattern of electricity consumers’ behavior.JEL Codes - Q40, M21, M38, H4

Over the Precipice: Transitional Pressures from Household PV Battery Adoption on Electricity Markets and the Potential for Decarbonisation

The electricity system is undergoing simultaneous change from the integration of large-scale wind and solar farms to the rapid growth of rooftop solar in over 3 million Australian households. This research establishes a range of future impacts that households with solar PV and battery systems could have on the wider power sector, the extent to which policymakers may influence their outcome, and their potential contribution to decarbonisation as an emerging source of renewable energy

Of Nesting Dolls and Trojan Horses: A Survey of Legal and Policy Issues Attendant to Vehicle-to-Grid Battery Electric Vehicles

2010 will not be remembered as the year when the domestic energy landscape changed, dominated as it was by environmental catastrophe and human calamity and tragedy caused by the search for and extraction of traditional fossil fuels. In fact, clean(er) energy and greater efficiency seem, in some ways, to be less of a reality at the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century than many would have predicted (and hoped). Furthermore, a contentious mid-term election season (stoked by fears of massive deficits, rising national debt and ballooning government) dominated the headlines at the expense of what could prove to be a watershed moment in domestic life—the release of the first two (of several) electricity-powered light-duty passenger vehicles with range enough to allow for travel without petroleum. More than a novelty, automakers (and the U.S. government and most developed nations) are betting on, and investing in, the transition to a future automotive transportation sector with an increasingly larger number of plug-in electric vehicles. The legal and policy questions that face the automotive industry and the governments that plan to facilitate and regulate this transition are the subject of this article. Part I discusses the possibility that such a transition holds for twenty-first century life: cleaner skies, more energy efficient appliances, increasing use of renewable energy to produce electricity, investment in electricity infrastructure, and cheaper electricity. Part II directs the discussion toward the potential pitfalls of an automotive sector dominated by electricity (and, therefore, computers): huge capital costs to remake the electrical grid, imbalanced reliance on digital gadgetry which could increase domestic vulnerabilities to cyber attack, and greater institutional control over an individual\u27s daily life. Part III then introduces the primary legal and policy issues of the debate, which range in scope from individual to community to state to federal to international; involve hard questions of exactly how to invest scarce funds and when to do so; and will undoubtedly require international agreement and cooperation. Part III concludes by examining recent legislative efforts to facilitate the transition, including Senate bill 3442 (Electric Vehicle Deployment Act), and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a. the stimulus package). Finally, the article briefly imagines what an America infused with electric vehicles might look like

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures in the United States Electric Power Industry

This chapter addresses greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures in the US energy sector, and, specifically, those applying to the US electric power industry. The focus is on the systems of federal, state, regional, and local regulation of GHG emissions associated with electricity generation, transmission and distribution, concentrating on the regulatory trends likely to have the largest impacts on mitigating GHG emissions. In addition, this section will discuss the extent to which these systems of regulating GHG emissions have evolved over the past decade