Time for a Philosophy Shift

The Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America kicked off on March 8 with a unique perspective of the condition of the U.S. electric grid presented by Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin Electric Institute and former president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute. Yeager stressed during his keynote address that electricity is at a point technologically “where we can reinvent Thomas Edison.” Much of that revitalization, Yeager said, will come through the continual development of a smarter grid.

While Smart Grid has a tendency to tack on a number of different name badges, Yeager defined it in three ways: Moving from analog to an electronically-monitored power system, a two-way consumer services gateway, and the reintroduction of direct current (DC)/microgrids.

In order for Smart Grid to work, electricity providers must develop a user-centric view, Yeager said.

“Smart Grid is a transactive network. The user becomes a partner, not a prisoner of the network.”

A smarter grid is also essential to grid reliability. Yeager presented a few astonishing numbers associated with grid reliability. The average consumer in the U.S. is without power four hours each year. That may seem like a drop in the bucket, but not in comparison to Japan, where consumers are without power seven minutes a year, and Singapore, where the average citizen would hardly notice the average seven electricity-deprived seconds a year.

Yeager noted that President Barack Obama’s goal to achieve 80 percent clean energy by 2035 is doable, but “we can’t do it without fundamentally changing the rules.” The principle shift, he said, needs to occur with smart grid developments. Yeager’s recommendations for change include providing consumers with a choice of access to real-time electricity prices, holding utilities publicly accountable to specific system performance standards, and expanding net metering to include physical aggregation and carbon portfolio standards.

A future in which customer-specific data belongs to the customer should be the electric future of America, Yeager said. If an individual has control over every other area of his or her personal life (bank account, stocks, cell phone bill) through technology devices galore, it should be no different with an individual’s electricity usage. The road to a smarter grid starts with a perspective shift from the electric industry, rather than following a lengthy to-do list. Thinking beyond what has already been done will be necessary if the electric industry is going to “reinvent Edison.”