The Grid4EU program helps six major European smart grid projects collaborate to spur innovation and enhance results.

A major new European Union program aims to enhance several major smart grid pilot projects happening around Europe.

Grid4EU — a four-year, multi-national project — comprises six smart grid projects by utilities in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. Together these projects cover more than half of Europe’s electricity supply. Also participating are more than 25 partners from several countries representing industry, system integrators, research centers and universities.

This is the largest smart grid project backed by the European Union. So far Grid4EU has received €25 million in EU funding, plus €29 million in industry funding.

The Grid4EU vision is to challenge and go beyond the current limits of European electricity networks. The pilots will test the potential that smart grids hold for integration of renewable energy, electric vehicles, grid automation, energy storage, energy efficiency, load management, demand reduction and more.

By working together under Grid4EU, these projects will seek to complement and enhance each other. The program also promotes research collaboration and the sharing of results among the participating energy distributors.

In Uppsala, Sweden, eMeter is working with the utility Vatenfall on the their DEMO 2 project, slated to go live by the end of 2012. DEMO 2 is demonstrating how using automated meter management technology to control low-voltage distribution networks (which include intelligent equipment) so they can support more distributed generation and also improve power quality to customers.

In the Vatenfall project, eMeter’s Energy IP software will increase the utility’s network monitoring and quality check capabilities.

Also in this project, eMeter will be:

• Integrating systems.This involves adding smart communications, sensors and control devices to Vatenfall’s systems for grid management, alerts, business support, workflow and billing.
• Making the grid more efficient.We’ll promote electricity conservation through voltage management and optimization across the grid. This involves closely monitoring voltage feedback levels from transformers and feeders as well as on customers’ premises (via smart meters). This will help flatten the overall voltage profile, allowing the grid to operate at lower voltage within the legally-tolerated voltage range. That’s one way to save substantial energy at the grid level with no inconvenience to consumers.
• Improving outage detection and recovery. We’ll help improve how utilities address outages and power restoration by remotely monitoring distribution network sensors and smart meters. Automating this activity through the outage management system will help utilities identify outages faster and cut the costs involved with restoring power.

It’s great to see such intense collaboration among key players to overcome smart grid challenges and share results.

In the big picture, the smart grid is a process of enabling the flow of information along the whole energy chain. This helps keep the whole system balanced, to the benefit of all stakeholders: power generators, distributors and customers as well as investors. It also saves energy and cuts greenhouse gas emissions in both how energy is produced and consumed.

I’m one of the people reporting to Expert Group 3 of the EU’s Smart Grid Task Force, which is exploring business and regulatory models to support the smart grid. This group will examine the roles and responsibilities of all players involved in smart grid deployment. As a reporter, I’ll share information and experience gained from Vatenfall’s Grid4EU project, in the Grid4EU spirit of collaboration.

The paper was authored by Klaus Bender, a professional engineer and UTC’s Director of Standards & Engineering. His conclusion? “No health threat from smart meters.”

So far over 30 million smart meters are installed and operating around the U.S. Yet not a single person has ever been demonstrably harmed by a smart meter.

Top 10 states for smart meter installations.

Bender’s article reviews current safety standards for radio frequency energy. It includes a chart comparing the RF output of smart meters to other household wireless devices. Smart meter RF emissions are actually lower than those of many common household devices.

RF emissions of smart meters compared to other common devices. Source: UTC

Smart meter RF emissions fall into the same category as many wireless devices already found in the home. Bender found that smart meter emissions are less than those of wireless routers used for internet connectivity, and even less than wireless baby monitors. But unlike a laptop wireless modem or home WiFi router (which are constantly transmitting) smart meters transmit in short bursts during only a fraction of the day.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, both Democrats and Republicans on the Pa. House Consumer Affairs Committee expressed skepticism about the proposal to modify a 2008 state law which gave utilities 15 years to deploy smart meters.

Sonny Popowsky, the state’s official Consumer Advocate, testified that the current smart meter opt-out provision in the bill HB 2188 would result in higher manual meter reading costs — greater than the cost to install and operate smart meters. He noted that in other states, customers who opt out must pay fees to compensate for the higher costs they impose on other utility ratepayers.

Democratic Rep. Bryan Barbin said that electronic smart meter technology is better than the electromechanical technology, and asked: “Why is that not better for consumers?” Popowsky agreed and praised the legislature for providing a 15-year implementation period for smart meter deployment.

Popowsky also noted that each Pa. utility has filed a plan to install smart meters in a reasonable time frame. The proposed opt-out would not change these deployment schedules — but it would increase costs.

Rep. Joseph Preston (the committee’s Democratic chair) suggested that Pa. customers who opt out should be asked to bear the additional costs, if any. However, if it is cheaper to opt out, those customers should receive a discount.

Popowsky noted that all evidence he has seen suggests that opt outs increase costs. Also, all states which have allowed opt outs have required those customers to cover the extra costs so as not to burden other customers.

How utilities respond to outages is a concern. Committee Chair Robert Godshall observed that utilities only learn that the power is out for customers with electromechanical meters when those customers call in. In contrast, smart meters automatically report outages to the utility.

Popowsky clarified that customers who opt out of getting a smart meter would still have to call the utility to report outages — and that they might have a greater responsibility to do so. For people with smart meters, the utility will know automatically that power is not on at the meter; for customers who opt out, the utility won’t know of the outage unless the customer calls.

I live in London, and am pleased that there are initiatives here which recognize and promote the deployment of smart meters for electricity (and hopefully, soon, water). These efforts note the benefits that smart meters can provide — such as helping people save energy, water and money as well as increasing the use of renewable resources.

I read about several of these efforts in the first quarterly newsletter of the Low Carbon London project, which launched six months ago. This £30 million program from UK Power Networks (the utility serving London and southeast England), is largely funded through energy regulator Ofgem’s Low Carbon Networks Fund to help develop smart electricity networks. It explores how new technology, as well as innovative operating and commercial arrangements, can help electricity networks support a low-carbon future — not just in London, but across the U.K. and the world. (E-mail me if you’d like a copy of the LCL newsletter.)

But to make it all work, U.K. regulatory bodies and public authorities should cooperate with utilities and market operators. The whole system must be smart in order to yield full benefits to everyone.

For instance, it’s not enough to merely promote decentralized energy systems (such as cogeneration and feed-in tariffs for on-site renewables). The U.K. energy market should also develop signals and incentives that show consumers when and how to use electricity. Similarly, demand response management also can offer economic benefits to participating consumers.

Many major cities, such as New York City, are implementing their own plans to increase sustainability and improve quality of life. They realize how automation and information management could yield operational improvements and savings not only for the public budget but also for citizens.

Here is some of what the city of New York and Siemens are implementing together:

• Performance contracting.Guaranteed performance-based solutions allow capital improvements to be funded through energy savings. This can eliminate capital outlays and reduce operating costs.
• Schools.Performance contracting, intelligent lighting and smart building controls yield more energy efficient, better-lit schools. This, in turn, creates healthier learning environments for New York City students.
• Building controls.Optimized power usage in commercial, residential and public buildings balances comfort with cost savings and environmental benefits.
• Demand response.New York City’s power grid sometimes struggles to match supply with demand. When neighborhoods implement demand response they can temporarily reduce power consumption and thereby reduce the chance of an outage — while maintaining reliability, comfort and security.
• Intelligent lighting.When a lighting system knows which spaces in a building are in use, it can save energy by turning out lights in empty rooms. On sunny days, such systems also can adjust to maintain optimal light levels, thereby saving energy by making optimum use of natural light.
• LED lighting.Efficient lighting technology allows neighborhoods to make better use of streets and parks at night — while also improving security, reducing energy consumption and substantially cutting costs.
• Rooftop solar.Building owners can tap into the power of the sun and reduce energy consumption by installing photovoltaic panels on city rooftops.
• Electric vehicle infrastructure.As more electric vehicles hit the road in NYC, the city will need more charging stations connected to the power grid.
• Community intelligence. Providing useful dashboard-style data from public sources and social networks to NYC residents (via public, online, or at-home information displays) can empower neighborhoods with real-time community information while also encouraging civic engagement.

As a Londoner, and part of smart grid industry, I plan to get personally involved in making London a more efficient and intelligent city, where energy and information are well managed — and the quality of life improves for all Londoners.

This type of device is used to program smart meters. In Puerto Rico, this was the weak link that allowed energy theft to happen.

This week, several news outlets (such as Network World) have described a new FBI finding that “smart meter hackers” are enabling the theft of millions of dollars’ worth of electricity from a utility in Puerto Rico. In its report, the FBI noted: “This is the first report that criminals have compromised smart grid meters.” The agency added: “This type of fraud is likely to spread.”

So what is this type of fraud?

Upon a closer look, this situation is not so much about smart meters as it is about criminal human behavior. Former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs explained that it was not actually the smart meters themselves which were “hacked.” The meters’ own security measures were not breached.

Instead, criminals accessed the smart meters by stealing meter passwords as well as some devices used to program the meters. This is more like stealing a key and opening a door, rather than breaking the lock on the door.

These criminals were former employees of the utility involved, and of the vendor who provided the smart meters. These people were paid (bribed) by customers to illegally reprogram the meters so that those meters would record less energy consumption than actually occurred. This is not fundamentally different from bribing human meter readers to underreport consumption — which happens often in some developing countries.

How to prevent this type of security risk?

First, utilities and companies that make smart meters and related technology must tighten their “human security measures.” This includes planning for the worst case — rogue employees. Companies already do such contingency planning to safeguard sensitive IT systems.

Also, these companies should use available analytics software that can spot possible incidents of electricity theft. Such software can detect when a meter’s password or programming changed, and automatically initiate a field investigation. Meter data analytics software also can identify unusual changes in the amount of energy used, or in usage patterns. (The EnergyIP and Analytics software from eMeter can handle all of these tasks for electric, gas, and water meters.)

Using analytics for security isn’t anything new. Credit card companies have long used analytics software extensively.

Analytics software solutions are available for all of the smart meters already installed. Consequently, every meter in the field can become a fully reliable tool to prevent energy theft.

…That is, as long as the meter data analytics are part of a comprehensive security strategy. This means dealing with the human aspect, as well as using software to mine the data and find the problems.

The city of Perth, Australia

Recently Western Power of Australia released results from its comprehensive research program into energy efficiency. The numbers show that smart meters, the smart grid, and solar power can help households cut their electricity bills — by half!

For instance, in the Perth Solar City program, Western Power ran a series of energy efficiency trials which demonstrated that even with measures that cost the householder nothing, electricity bills can drop by nearly 10%. This program is managed by Western Power on behalf of the Australian Government.

Perth Solar City has developed and implemented more than 30 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects for households in Perth’s eastern region. The preliminary results show a broad range of positive results:

• In-home displays.Using these devices to show to real-time energy consumption data helped cut electricity use in homes by nearly 7% — and by 54% in schools.
• Demand management. In its first year, an air conditioning trialyielded a 20% reduction in electricity use during peak hours.
• Time-of-Use tariff. Customers on the optional PowerShift tariffcut their energy use by nearly 11% during the “super peak” period.
• Residential solar PV systems.Participating customers reduced their average daily amount of power drawn from the grid by about 58% (over 11 kWh per day).
• Residential solar hot water systems.These yielded a 15% reduction in average daily electricity use.
• Behavior change Customers in the Living Smart Program saw a nearly 9% drop in average daily electricity use, from a combination of measures.

Details are included in the Solar City annual report.

Another success story on the road to the smart grid…

The smart grid will not only reduce energy waste and help utilities operate more efficiently — it also will improve reliability, deliver even more energy savings, minimize the need for extra power plants to meet peak demand, accommodate more wind and solar generation, and make it more economical to drive electric vehicles.

These lofty goals are supported by this triad of consumer empowerment strategies:

1. Energy data and feedback. When consumers get timely and actionable information and feedback about their energy consumption, they can make better decisions about how they use energy. This includes knowing how much they’d save by buying more efficient appliances.

2. Pricing options. The smart grid supports time-of-use and other electricity pricing options, which help people save money by using low-cost power during off-peak hours.

This also helps utilities make better use of off-peak wind capacity. Right now, wind power faces a big problem: nearly every day, utilities waste precious wind energy resources by turning off wind turbines.

When consumers respond to pricing signals, utilities can optimize the use of generating capacity, manage transmission constraints, and avoid potential distribution network overloads as customer add new loads (such as air conditioning, or eventually electric vehicles).

3. Automation of home appliances and building control systems via “set-and-forget” devices (especially smart thermostats) lets energy users to respond to energy price changes without even thinking about it. This makes it easy and convenient for anyone to save money and energy. Also, the home area network (which is really a “building area network”) supports automation with real-time usage data.

…Science fiction? These strategies are already available to millions of customers in Ontario, Canada; Victoria, Australia; California and Texas. There, smart meters work together with useful consumer energy information and pricing policies to deliver benefits.

More details in future posts…

Elements of the Danish smart grid, from Energinet/DK report. (Click to enlarge)

Recently the government of Denmark committed to shifting half of its total energy consumption to renewable resources in a decade — and to go to 100% renewables by 2050.

On March 22 the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Buildings released an agreement to meet half of that nation’s electricity need with wind power by 2020. Currently wind power can serve only a quarter of Denmark’s 1.5 million households.

This agreement also covers energy use for heating, industry, and transportation — not just residential electricity service. It implies that Denmark could cut energy consumption by 12% by 2020 (compared to 2006 usage).

More highlights:

• Biomass power generationwill help meet demand currently served by coal-fired power plants.
• Heating.35 million Danish Kroner (about €4.75 million) will be spent to promote renewable heating technologies, such geothermal energy and large heat pumps.
• On-site renewable generation(such as solar panels) will be deployed at more buildings.
• Better boilers.Existing oil-fired boilers will be phased out and new oil-fired boilers will be banned. By 2015, 42 million DKK (about €5.65 million) will be available to help convert existing oil and gas boilers to renewable technologies.
• Industrial facilitiesmust start using more renewable energy for production process. 30 million DKK (about €4 million) will be spent to promote industrial cogeneration.
• Energy efficiencywill play a key role in expanding the role of renewables. This will involve strategies for conducting and subsidizing renovations and new construction for all types of buildings.
• Smart grid deployment.The agreement acknowledges that achieving these large-scale goals requires an “intelligent energy system.” So Denmark will create a strategy that will mandate hourly recording for electricity meters.
• R&D efforts will support and test strategies to move Denmark to 100% renewable energy.

How will Denmark finance this considerable undertaking?

• Energy distribution tariffswill partially compensate energy companies’ efforts to improve energy efficiency.
• Public Service Obligation.This charge, which is included in the transmission and distribution cost that appears on a customer’s energy bill, will help fund expansion of the power grid to connect more renewable generation. The PSO normally increases as wholesale power prices decline.
• Auctions for subsidieswill allow winning companies to operate specified services to the extended grid for period of time.
• A new “security of supply” tax on space heating will fund some energy innovation projects such biogas, industrial cogeneration, and renewables for business and rental properties. It will also help compensate for reduced revenues due to lower fossil fuel consumption. This will help keep Denmark economically competitive.

These big changes are just part of how Denmark’s ambitious climate and energy targets are shifting fundamental conditions for its power generation, power grid, and the role of consumers in the energy market.

More background: See EnerginetDK’s report Denmark’s smart grid, and watch this video.

I’m a data guy, so I figured I’d check it out…

Many of us have seen the famous “Rosenfeld Effect” chart, which shows per capita electricity consumption in California from 1960 to 2008. (Rosenfeld has been called the Father of Energy Efficiency.) Energy consumption for Californians looks pretty flat since the mid-1970s — but for people in the rest of the country, it appears to be steadily rising.

The famous Rosenfeld Effect. (Click to enlarge)

What happens if we look at the past two decades, using Department of Energy and Census Bureau figures?

The Rosenfeld Effect extended over the past two decades, based on DOE and Census Bureau data. (Click to enlarge)

The growth line for the entire U.S. looks pretty flat, especially since 2000.

And the statistics agree:

• By the decade spanning 1990 to 2000, the average annual increase in consumption (the compound annual growth rate) had dropped to near zero: 0.34% increase per year.
• Then, from 2000 to 2011, the CAGR even went negative: -0.67% per year. This means that average consumption fell.

What about total U.S. electricity consumption — total deliveries to all customers, including the increased population over time? Over the past 10 years, that CAGR was 0.32%. This means that utilities sold a little bit more power, but not much.

Change has happened. The paradigm for utility industry growth has shifted.

This is good news for the environment and for sustainability — but regulators have some real work to do to ensure that utilities remain financially healthy in this new paradigm.

These strategies also comprise the three pillars that can empower consumers to understand their energy usage, manage it, and realize greater benefits.

Now, the Smart Energy Demand Coalition has publish a Google Maps mashup showing nearly 150 of these projects around the world. Each project is marked with a flag; click on it to see project details.

This is a great research tool for investigating this fascinating field, which is increasingly being enabled by continuing smart meter rollouts. It’s a view into the demand side of the energy market — a key aspect of the smart grid.

The SEDC website offers a couple of great, short videos on related topics: