Everything's Bigger in Texas...Even Power Usage

August 17, 2010-

Yesterday, Texas hit a new power usage record for the third time this month. High temperatures led to 64,805 MW of power usage between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. "That breaks last week's record of 63,830 MW (Aug. 10) by 975 MW, and last year's record by 1,405 MW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas." - from Chron.com

Thanks to Boone Pickens and the rest of the wind energy producers in Texas, wind energy accounted for about 1 percent of that power usage, with a 680 MW output average during the peak hour. ERCOT has 9,317 MW of installed wind capacity, the highest of any state.

ERCOT assuredly breathed a sigh of relief after no major outages were reported during the peak hour, especially since electric power outages and interruptions cost the U.S. economy about $80 billion annually. But with records continuing to be set, one has to wonder what's going on with Smart Grid developments in Texas.

Smart Grid is essentially a combination of technology and resources to provide balanced generation with demand. During my first week in the power industry, Bill Strohecker, vice president of power sales for ABB, told me the purpose of Smart Grid is to "eliminate inefficiencies in generation, transmission and distribution."

In most cases, power is currently a one-way path. But what if, by charging your electric car, you could actually feed into the grid? Or perhaps you were one of the Texans contributing to the new power usage record yesterday. Let's say it was 3:30 p.m. in Midland, you were at work, and you realized that your thermostat was set to 71 degrees at home and didn't really need it that low. In a Smart Grid situation, you could log in and change your power preferences from your work computer.

Smart Grid opportunities like the aforentioned are popping up around Texas, and the entire nation. A product called the TXU Energy iThermostat is currently installed in 20,000 locations. Last week, TXU Energy announced that it is targeting the installation of 100,000 smart systems in homes and business by the end of 2012, which will include the installation of the iThermostat and the TXU Energy PowerMonitor.

Baltimore Gas and Electric was given the "yes" just yesterday to move forward on its Smart Grid program. These plans are great, but will customers be willing to pay the price?

In March, GE released the results of a smart grid survey of a cross section of 1,000 U.S. consumers. Nearly four of every five Americans (78 percent) familiar with the term Smart Grid said that they believe it would help reduce the number of power outages and restore power more quickly when outages do occur.