New transmission is a major issue and permitting is complex, time-consuming, and expensive. Overhead HV often takes 5-7 years to permit. HVDC lines take far less time, because they are laid underground and require only a small right-of-way, which speeds up the process to a two- to three-year average. Such lines also don’t have cooling or freezing issues and are now increasingly used under-sea.

The IPP Sea Breeze Power is completing permitting of the $750 million Juan de Fuca Cable (JFC) that will connect Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington state — and with it the US Pacific Northwest — with Victoria and the British Columbia power grid. The new sea floor HVDC Light line will enable a more efficient import/export handling between the Bonneville Power and BC Hydro transmission networks and provide a third bi-directional connection between western Canada and the US. This will help stabilize power on the grid and make electricity more reliable for commercial and residential users from three US states and BC.

JFC is using the latest DC transmission technology from ABB, which generates a fraction of the materials cost and carbon footprint of AC and does not require cooling for under-sea lines — the dirty, buried secret of the utilities. The cable also makes allowances for earthquake-prone fault lines by providing slack in its underground routing.

The new line will be built and used using an innovative shared revenue model between the project owners and the two utilities.

Article by Stephan Burckhardt, a cleantech, high-tech brand and marketing consultant based in British Columbia.

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The popular Spanish holiday destination will clean up its energy mix with an underwater connection to the mainland.

Back in October 2007 Siemens announced on its website that its Power Transmission and Distribution (PTD) would connect the resort island of Majorca to the power grid on the Spanish mainland for the first time.

The feat would be done through a 155 mile-long, 250kV HVDC submarine cable linking the island to Morvedre, near Valencia. The cable would allow power transmission of 400 MW at a DC transmission voltage of 250 kV from May 2011.

Majorca is a very popular holiday destination during the summer, when it is visited by hordes of northern European tourists. The electricity imports from the European power grid will cover the island’s peak load requirements. And what’s better, with a good share of renewable energy.

Now the project has been inaugurated, according to a statement Siemens released two days ago.

The amount of power the HVDC link will transmit to Majorca (400 MW) correspond to around 25 per cent of the island’s installed power plant capacity that serves 860,000 people who live there and ten million tourists who visit it annually. 35 per cent of the mainland power mix is based on alternative energy, whereas Majorca’s installed generation is largely based on gas, coal and oil. Compared with the construction of an additional new power plant the link to the mainland will in the future reduce annual CO2 emissions by as much as 1.2 million tons, or roughly halve emission, Siemens said.

According to Siemens Energy CEO, Michael Suess, the project is part of a larger trend in Europe to create a super grid. “With our HVDC technology renewables-based power can be transmitted over long distances with low losses”, he said.

Siemens said that cables links longer than 80 kilometers are only possible with HVDC transmission technology. That is because for underground or submarine cables, hardly any electricity is delivered when AC lines are this length or longer, because the cable’s insulation serves as a capacitor and becomes charged, thereby absorbing the electricity.

The link laid to Mallorca comprises three single-piece submarine cables, which were supplied by the Italian cable specialist Prysmian together with the Norwegian cable manufacturer Nexans and laid at a depth of as much as 1485 meters on the Mediterranean seabed.

With overhead lines, HVDC reduces the transmission losses by between 30 and 50 percent. Given the same width of the cable run, 30 to 40 percent more energy can be transmitted than with conventional overhead lines carrying alternating current.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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Plugging in an electric car is very well and environmentally good, but what about the emissions reductions of connecting a large yacht or even an entire cruise ship to the grid? Currently, ships must burn fuel to maintain onboard systems, even at port. Linking just one cruise ship at port to the electricity grid could prevent the equivalent CO2 emissions of 2,500 cars. [Infographic]

Over 90 percent of the world’s cargo is transported by ship. It’s no surprise then that thousands of cargo ships, cruise ships and private yachts arrive at ports every day. Once in port, these vessels burn fossil fuels to maintain essential operations or onboard services to their passengers. That’s a little bit like having to leave your car’s engine on, even when you’re parked in the driveway. During a 10-hour stay in port, the diesel engines of a single cruise ship can burn 20 metric tons of fuel and produce 60 metric tons of CO2. Carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particles and other in-port shipping emissions pose a suite of environmental problems and respiratory health risks.

One solution to this business as usual scenario is to connect vessels at port directly to the power grid using shore-to-ship technology. ABB, a global power and automation company that provides shore-to-ship technology, helps the shipping industry to improve local harbor environments, prevent global carbon emissions and reduce costs. Ships adopting this technology will be able to leave the lights on without leaving the engine on.

View ABB’s infographic comparing shore-to-ship technology to business as usual.

Article by Gavin Hudson, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

Full disclosure: In addition to blogging, I also work at ABB. The opinions in this article are mine and don’t necessarily represent ABB.

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I am not going to lie — when I first heard about solar battery storage, I was not overly excited. Because I usually work with our efficiency programs – and communicating how our customers can conserve energy and save money – I was way out of my comfort zone. And I’d missed lunch, so I was cranky.

Now that I’ve had some nachos, I’ll do my best to illuminate you on the topic.

You may recall from a previous blog post that SolarTAC officially opened its 74-acre testing and demonstration campus in Aurora, Colo. It’s really big.

SolarTAC offers an opportunity to study issues and solutions related to accommodating large amounts of solar energy on the electric grid. Xcel Energy has installed a large, utility scale battery (also mentioned in the previous blog) energy storage system as part of a three-year test program with Xtreme Power at SolarTAC to evaluate how energy storage can help assist our operating a distribution system. I’ve seen a photo. It, too, is really big.

As solar energy continues to grow in our resource mix, we are interested in better managing it on our power system. Fluctuations associated with cloud cover and other weather-related events can cause the output of solar photovoltaic (PV) resources to drop from 100 percent output to 20 percent in less than one minute and climb back to 100 percent just as quickly. That’s super fast.

Frank Novachek, director of Corporate Planning for Xcel Energy, explained it to me this way: “Imagine a comb turned with the teeth facing toward your head. That’s solar production on a sunny day – smooth and flat like the back of a comb. Now picture the comb flipped. That’s solar production on a cloudy day; big fluctuations that are close together. We are looking at ways to at least partially fill in the empty spaces in between the teeth, to minimize the effects of that variability on the power we provide our customers.”

The power grid works best when it’s fed a nice, consistent supply of electricity to keep the electrons flowing. To improve the ups and downs with solar energy, we need to work with Mother Nature and compensate for her beautifully erratic behavior.

While a comb certainly is an illustrative explanation, I kind of think of the power grid in this way: if you don’t eat all day you get really cranky, and then you eat a heaping plate of nachos, you may feel satisfied – but only for a short period. If you were to eat five small, balanced meals a day, you’ll do much better and be much more productive. The grid likes consistency as well.

We are storing and releasing solar energy produced at SolarTAC in megawatt-scale batteries to better understand how these technologies will be able to help us in the future, particularly as we get more and more solar photovoltaic energy on our systems. We are hopeful that stored energy can make up the difference during those periods when the clouds roll over.

It’s actually a pretty cool thing, a big giant battery full of sunshine (much like my personality).

Article by Tim Laughlin, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

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The sun is ready to go to work in the Empire State. Why, it can even clean a subway car. And these hot summer temperatures serve as a timely (and toasty) reminder that solar is ready and able to help today.

As was excellently articulated by ClimateProgress reporter Stephen Lacey last week, solar is a prime solution for the electricity woes sweeping much of the country amid this summer’s heat wave. You should go read the whole thing here, but some juicy bits:

Today, the cost of solar electricity ranges anywhere from 12 cents to 30 cents per kilowatt hour — in some cases, potentially a third of what it costs to meet peak demand with conventional resources.

So looking back on the month of July, how many times in the NY ISO would solar have helped at a cost that is equal to today’s fossil-fuel dominated wholesale power supply? Let’s take a conservative view for New York and look only at the instances when the price was above 30 cents/kWh, or in ISO speak, $300 MW-hr (LBMP), the upper end of today’s wholesale solar prices. How many times this past month would solar power be at or below at grid parity?

The answer — 1,748. That’s right, during the month of July in various markets around New York state, power prices crossed the $300 MW-hr threshold a whopping 1748 times. An impressive 220 times, the price soared to more than $1000 MW-hr. New York hit a maximum of $1750 during one — probably terrifying – hour on July 22nd for the Long Island Power Authority. Proof positive that solar is a good deal for New York.

These sky-high electricity prices and outage alerts are a pretty clear indicator that New York’s business-as-usual energy approach is broken. And as conventional prices stay on their erratic and upward trajectory, you can bet that the cost of solar will continue to trend down making PV’s economics look even sunnier. Let’s not forget that the sunshine is still a free, making PV a welcome hedge against continued fuel price volatility. In short, solar is primed and ready to cost-effectively address New York’s power needs, especially the peak demand that paralyzes the state’s power grid on hot summer days.

No surprise to those vaguely familiar with the daily path of the sun that these times of high, pricey demand line up with New York highest solar generation potential. Let’s put the sun that’s causing those high temps to work addressing the very power spikes it’s producing. What could make more sense?

The New York Solar Jobs Act provides the missing policy link needed to deploy PV at scale. The bill’s goal of 5 gigawatts of local solar development would go a long way toward repowering the state and easing grid crunch. And so we know it might be hard to remember these soaring temps when the legislature is back in session and considering the bill again come February as you’re shoveling snow. But maybe this will help — the price spikes now, will be setting the trend for higher bills paid in January, February, March, heck, the whole year round. The sun comes up ready to work, day in and day out, month after month. So stay tuned!

Vote Solar is a non-profit grassroots organization working to fight climate change and foster economic opportunity by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.

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At Connectivity Week in Santa Clara, recently, I took part in a series of panel discussions on data center energy efficiency. The discussions covered a wide range of issues from the practicalities of infrastructure optimization to the possible role of data centers in demand response schemes. There was a particular focus on the importance, and also the challenge, of making a closer connection between overall data center efficiency and the effective work being done by IT equipment. A more general theme was the sheer complexity of the changes happening in the data center industry. It seems everything is in flux, from changes in the power grid to the impact of smart devices on IT demand. This is the context in which operational changes like the move to more dynamic management of power and cooling infrastructures and the introduction of virtualization are taking place.

In the midst of these changes, it was a pleasure to hear what some of the leading companies are doing in terms of increasing the energy efficiency and lowering their environmental impact of their data centers. An important point was made about the benefits of sharing good ideas, experience, and best practice. The data center professionals at the event, which included people from Cisco, NetApp, and Sybase/SAP, were generous with the insight they provided on what they are doing in their data centers and the challenges they face. The question was also asked why some data centers are less willing to talk about the specifics of their operation. While commercial sensitivities are often cited, the issues that are being addressed in terms of cooling efficiency, for example, can hardly be seen as business critical. More importantly, lack of transparency makes it harder to assess the real environmental impact of a given data center.

This discussion came back to me as I read the latest Greenpeace report on the environmental performance of the IT industry. In the report, “How Dirty Is Your Data?“, the organization takes a critical look at the environmental impact of the growth in data centers. Greenpeace is largely positive about the role that IT can play in reducing carbon emissions and other forms of environmental damage. It also recognizes the impact of the move to cloud computing on demand patterns and on how the industry operates. However, the report makes the case, that cloud computing will only be as green as the data centers that support it. We have made a similar point regarding how realizing the potential environmental benefits of cloud computing depends on how the model is actually instantiated. One of Greenpeace’s strongest criticisms of current practice is that there is still a tendency among some of the biggest players in the cloud space to build data centers in low-cost energy regions that are largely dependent on coal-powered generators. The organization’s bust-up with Facebook over this issue is well-known, but it points out that other major cloud providers have also shown inconsistency in their location planning for data centers. The irony, of course, is that these decisions are often being made in parallel with much-lauded moves to use more renewable energy in other data centers or to improve the energy efficiency of operations. On the positive side, Greenpeace sees some signs of more considered and transparent strategies for data center location emerging, with Yahoo! cited as a pathfinder in this regard.

However, the strongest point made by the Greenpeace report and the one that connects back to the discussions in Santa Clara, is about the general lack of transparency on these issues. As the report says, “much of the information that would allow us to assess the net benefits of the cloud by measuring the true environmental cost…is missing.” The role of data centers as “the factories of the Technology Revolution” means that we need to develop greater visibility on the choices being made about their energy consumption and their energy sources. Any company has the right to keep its operational data private, but customers, investors, and employees have a right to know how well it is living up to its own ethical claims and how it compares with its competitors on the sustainability of its operations. If cloud computing is to live up to claims of being a greener solution, then we need more open reporting and standard metrics on energy use in data centers to enable an objective assessment of how well providers are performing.

Article by Eric Woods, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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Have you ever been on a sailboat when the wind kicked up and a big gust tossed you into the water? (Not that I have, of course. My friend maintains that he is an “expert captain.”) Or have you experienced the wind dying down and it’s like you’re going nowhere fast? (He’ll deny that one too.) Wind has a similar effect on the power grid – but if you know when the gusts are coming, you can adjust accordingly.

Wind is one of the most difficult weather variables to forecast (as my friend can attest). So many factors affect it – topography, ground cover, temperature inversions – even the number of leaves on nearby trees.

Keeping energy supply and demand in close balance is a complex and constant challenge for utilities. When hundreds of wind turbines ramp up and down at nearly the same time, system operators have to quickly adjust other power generation resources to accommodate the fluctuations.

Xcel Energy relies on wind energy a lot more than the average utility. Fortunately for us and our customers, the weather experts at the National Center for Atmospheric Research are cracking the code to reliable wind forecasting.

You’ve heard of Windtalkers; these folks are Windreaders.

A High-tech Crystal Ball
“One of the major obstacles that has prevented more widespread use of wind energy is the difficulty in predicting when and how strongly the wind will blow at the wind farms,” says William Mahoney, the NCAR program director overseeing the project.

NCAR’s state-of-the-art forecasting system combines real-time, turbine-level operating data with weather-prediction models and sophisticated algorithms to forecast wind energy out for 72 hours. The forecasts help operators make critical decisions about powering down coal- and gas-fired power plants when sufficient winds are predicted.

The task is especially challenging because researchers are actually pinpointing the breezes near the turbines, which are typically 200 to 400 feet above the ground. Winds at these heights tend to be much stronger than those measured by the ground-level weather stations that top out at 33 feet.

The Results
The NCAR folks have honed their forecasting system so accurately that Xcel has been able to idle coal plants for up to three days at a time – when the plants would otherwise be running.

That’s huge. It’s one thing to power down natural gas plants, which are designed to come on- and offline quickly. It’s another to idle a coal plant that can take more than a day to restart. The stakes are high, and accurate forecasting is crucial.

Once the NCAR researchers are satisfied that their forecasting system is ready for prime time, they plan to apply it more broadly. As unpredictable as the wind may seem to the rest of us (especially to that “expert captain”), it’s great to see that there are people who can crack the forecasting code and help us use less coal.

Now if only my friend can apply that forecasting technology to his boating…

Article by Sheila Knudtsen, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

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I think it would be a system operator’s nightmare. You’re responsible for keeping everyone’s lights on, but a passing set of clouds cuts the output from several solar arrays from 100% to 20% — and then raises it back up to 100% in less than a minute.

Fluctuations like that would put me in the hospital if I were a system operator, which fortunately for you all, I’m not.

Not for the faint of heart
From that system operator’s perspective, solar power can cause voltage swings, grid instabilities and shortfalls in meeting demand. Talk about stressful. Especially when your company is ranked No. 5 for solar capacity in the U.S. — and ramping up for more.

Another characteristic of solar is that its daily generation tends to peak before customers’ power use peaks, typically in the early evening hours when people get home but office buildings are still using their regular daytime power.

As more solar arrays come online — both rooftop and utility-scale — we need a reliable, cost-effective way to store all that great sun power and keep power distribution steady. Utility-scale batteries can supplement the grid during rapid fluctuations and “extend” solar energy to cover customers’ peak demand.

Commercial viability
Battery technology has come a long way in recent years, but with something as important as the power grid at stake, Xcel Energy is testing a utility-scale battery in a real-world setting before deploying the technology in other locations.

The 1 MW advanced dry cell lead-acid battery has a “round-trip efficiency” of more than 90%, meaning that only 10% of the energy used for charging is lost to the charging process. The technology also has a very fast response time to handle the quick fluctuations in solar power.

The demonstration is taking place at the Solar Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC) in Aurora, Colorado, where participating companies can test their technologies in a real-world setting to see if the products are ready for market or need improvements first.

Good for the environment – and the grid
This isn’t just a “cross your fingers and hope it works” test. The partners involved view it as a pivotal demonstration of the commercial viability of energy-storage systems, particularly of the new advanced lead-acid battery.

Lead-acid? Sounds more like Pepto Bismol for those system operators.

Article by Sheila Knudtsen, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

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Of the 12 smart grid projects to win an award as part of the GE Ecomagination Challenge, one in particular caught my attention.

That is GE’s collaboration with Columbia University’s School for Engineering and Applied Science, FedEx Express and Con Edison to take Columbia’s patented Adaptive Stochastic Controller technology for a test run in Manhattan.

Perhaps it’s that Columbia is the only university of the 12 grant winners or a recent conversation I had with a friend about the massive scale of electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is likely to be necessary in the near future, but the blurb about the collaboration in this Sustainable Business article piqued my interest.

The technology, developed by Columbia Engineering’s Roger Anderson and his Smart Grid team, will manage load and power delivery and provide a real time data link between electric vehicle charging stations and Con Edison’s electric distribution management system.

GE will provide $1.1 million in funding as well as expertise and support for the project, which will focus on recharging a fleet of electric delivery vehicles (EDVs) that FedEx will deploy next year.

The stochastic controller technology is described and claimed in Columbia’s U.S. Patent No. 7,395,252 (’252 Patent), which issued in July 2008. The ‘252 Patent’s decidedly non-energy related title is ”Innervated stochastic controller for real time business decision-making support”.

The ‘252 Patent is directed to a controller that optimizes decision-making by training itself using power grid simulations then analyzing grid events and generating planned responses to the events.

The ‘252 Patent describes a Learning System (1400) that includes a reinforcement-learning controller (1002), optional learning matrices (1004) used within a “critic” function (1003) and a model (1006) of a power grid (1600).

The Learning System uses simulation models of the subject power grids to link and analyze specific threat events on the power grid (1600) and generate planned and prioritized responses, while automatically and continuously “learning” during simulation runs.

The Learning System may be configured as a computer-based simulation and training tool that learns “best response scenarios” to these specific events on the grid and can train power control system operators to respond to such events or can act on its own and take automatic control actions.

The Columbia press release explains the technology as follows:

[The] patented Adaptive Stochastic Controller [will] “learn” the energy demands of each truck and coordinate its recharging with Con Edison to make sure the EDVs deliver “on time, every time” at the lowest possible cost while fitting smoothly into Manhattan’s electric-distribution grid. The controller will send commands, such as when to optimally start and stop the charging of both the EDVs and the recharge stations at the delivery depot. The stations will also record and transmit updated information to our complementary Columbia Engineering controller at Con Edison’s Manhattan Electric Control Center to ensure proper grid integration. The Columbia Engineering controller will be able to respond to electric-load-management directives from Con Edison to decrease or increase the current draw from the on-board vehicle inverters and batteries to assure both the stability of the electric grid in the area and the recharge capability of the FedEx Express EDVs.

Some of the other smart grid award winners are OPOWER (energy management systems and software), ClimateWell (efficient appliances), FMC-Tech (intelligent sensor technologies), Soladigm (building efficiency), SustainX (compressed air energy storage), and SynapSense (data center services).

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

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While others talk about the need to change our nation’s energy habits, GE is committing resources to find the best ideas and build a better energy grid.

GE and its partners announce the GE ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid, a $200 million investment in finding the best technologies, processes and business models to bring our energy grid into the 21st century. It’s about making clean energy real, bringing to market what works, right now.

In looking for the best ideas, GE is asking you to get involved in finding the solution.

You can submit an idea or vote for the ideas that you think are the most promising and play a part in defining the future of our energy grid.

There are three separate challenges to address how we create, connect and use energy, focused on: renewable energy, grid efficiency and eco homes/eco buildings.

Challenge 1: Create Power – Renewables.

Renewable energy holds extraordinary potential for helping us create the energy to meet our growing needs. But many forms of renewable energy are highly variable in their output. A more intelligent grid would integrate and manage renewable energy sources, helping ensure a steady supply of safe, reliable power.

Making the best use of the energy created by renewable resources is critical to a reliable supply of affordable energy.  This challenge asks, “What kinds of technologies or processes do you think will maximize the penetration of renewables into the grid?”

Challenge 2: Connect Power – Grid Efficiency.

The U.S. energy grid is outdated and inefficient. The grid wastes energy at every point during every day. The solution is to connect everyone to a more intelligent and more efficient grid.

This challenge aims to find technologies that lower delivery losses, and anticipate/monitor demand, freeing up grid capacity, and protecting consumers from steep rate increases. The question for this challenge is, “What technology, processes and policy, are the best means to help us realize greater gains in grid efficiency and outage management?”

Challenge 3: Use Power – Eco Homes/Eco Buildings.

Energy consumption is growing so quickly that it’s creating an imbalance between demand and supply, leading to higher energy costs for consumers and businesses.

The focus of this challenge is on technologies such as smart meters and appliances that let consumers’ appliances “talk” to their power utility, as well as renewable integration tools, neighborhood micro grids and much more. These technologies help power companies and their customers share information and manage their energy use better. The third challenge asks, “What new technologies, processes or business models can help consumers use energy more wisely and improve our energy balance?”

The rewards of being selected by the challenge judges may include grants, fellowships, an equity investment or the opportunity to develop a commercial relationship with GE.

GE brings the ability to leverage its considerable technical infrastructure, accelerating technology and product development, and utilizing existing GE customer relationships for an efficient go-to-market strategy. Selected entries could see their ideas reach all around the world.

Are you the next Edison? Submit your idea to the ecomagination Challenge at ecomagination.com/challenge. See what you can do to change the world.

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