John Adam

Smart Grid's Enabler - Alternative Energy Storage

John Petersen, I am getting the impression that my idea for a smartGRID is nothing like what the EXPERTS are talking about. As you say:
<<they have to focus on peaks and valleys, rather than the averages.>>

It seems that THEY want to lower the peaks and raise the valleys (off-peak) of the power use curve. That ignores the power generation curve, drawn on the same paper, that must be somewhat larger to avoid blackouts and could be a strait line if it was only produced by today’s nonrenewable fossil fuel, nuclear, geothermal, and hydro which can operate 24/7.

<<Most of the buzz in the alternative energy sector focuses on renewable power, demand management technology, advanced power transmission systems and batteries for electric vehicles.>>

THEIR idea for DEMAND MANAGEMENT is that millions of their customers are going to spend big bucks buying software, for home computers, to tailor and control their power usage based on off-peak power pricing considerations. Personally I think that their AVERAGE CUSTOMER has no intention of committing any of his time or resources to such intellectually taxing activities. Gamming on a Play Station is about as much IT as Mr. AVERAGE is up to doing.

You are correct in stating:

***<<In the process, the media has largely overlooked the reality that energy storage devices are essential enabling technologies for both transportation and the Smart Grid.>>

That is because although Mr. AVERAGE CUSTOMER will not jump head long into allowing a home PC to manage his life he will still very likely drive to work each day. But, in these days of expensive dirty terrorist oil, electric powered vehicles appear to be an economical environmentally friendly alternative which means that battery storage will be important and used by Mr. AVERAGE.

If MR. AVERAGE uses a smartCHARGER to charge these large batteries for his transportation the power use curve could become another nearly straight line like the power generation curve. A micro processor in the smartCHARGER would act as an agent for Mr. AVERAGE and request authorization to charge from the electric utility’s computers. That would synchronize the power distribution and usage curves. That is my smartGRID. The cost to the electric companies would be minimal corresponding to expanding their NEW smartMETER systems to process the smartCHARGER requests for authorization. We already have the infrastructure to generate twice electric power we need and we could very likely make do with what we actually generate now by using wasted energy to charge the batteries.
BUT, If we decide to use highly variable renewable power generation such as wind, and solar power to replace significant amounts of the old reliable 24/7 fossil, nuclear, hydro, ect. Power, we will need large storage capacity to store power when too much is being generated and to make up for periods when insufficient amounts of renewable power is being generated.

***<<I think there’s good reason to believe that in light of the recent EAC reports, grid-based energy storage may also qualify for a portion of the $4.5 billion earmarked for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability.>>

Now here is where the <<pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage>> makes much more cost effective sense than batteries for storing HUGE amounts of power generated by a electric utility. That is what Scientific American seems to think, www.sciam.com/article.... .