Technology
Smarter Juice
Rob
Wherry, 06.07.04
Another megablackout threatens to darken the summer of 2004. Innovative
solutions abound. Will the industry choose to fund them?
Last month California utility officials began their annual
warnings to residents about cutting back on power usage. And in April a joint
task force finally released its report on the causes of the summer 2003 blackout
that left most of the northeastern U.S. sweltering in the dark. The committee
placed blame on several clumsy utilities and a weak transmission grid. While the
task force did suggest ways to fix the problems, Secretary of Energy Spencer
Abraham left the industry with these dire words: "Improvements are urgently
needed. Failure to implement [the report's] recommendations could threaten the
reliability of the electricity supply." In other words: Get ready for the lights
to go out again.
Now, at least, utilities
are spending again on transmission, after 20 years of benign neglect. A recent
poll of 70 utility executives by GF Energy, a Washington, D.C. consultancy,
found that the industry planned to spend an additional $4 billion to $7 billion
annually over the next five years on high-voltage transmission. That's not much,
but it's a start. "The grid has been overlooked," says Maurice Gunderson,
cofounder of $250 million (assets) energy venture firm Nth Power. "We have to
catch up."
The companies below think they
have some solutions. These small outfits--several trade publicly--make products
that when installed at different points along the grid system, can help a
utility move power efficiently, save consumers money and alleviate strain on the
grid.
Software Optimal
Technologies' SmartGrid adds brains to wires. Its algorithms feed off data
transmitted wirelessly or through the Web from hardware scattered across the
grid. A system operator can see pockets of heavy demand like air conditioners on
a hot summer day, outages, congestion or tripped circuits at a substation. The
software then determines how the grid should react by, say, rerouting power over
a less congested line or by triggering back-up systems. It can also predict
possible hot spots, helping the utility decide where to situate new
infrastructure. The most basic system starts at $75,000.
Cables A frequent cause of outages is power-line sag.
The cables get hot, expand and short out against an errant tree branch. Last
year Composite Technology Corp. began marketing a stronger cable consisting of
aluminum threads that surround a carbon-and-glass-fiber core. Utilities
traditionally use two types of cables: copper and aluminum with a steel core.
CTC's composite-core cable, says the company, carries twice the power of
traditional aluminum cables and is 25% stronger and only a fourth as heavy. It's
also cheaper--$90,000 a mile rather than $550,000. The savings hinge on not
having to construct new steel towers to carry the weight of additional aluminum
cables to meet demand.
American
Superconductor helps make a copper-core cable that's wrapped by two layers of
superconducting wire. Liquid nitrogen, a cheaper alternative to traditional oil
coolant, courses around the wire to keep it from overheating. The coolant is 40
cents a gallon compared with $3.20 for oil. The cable can carry three to five
times the power of comparable copper lines.
Power Lines National Grid, one of the nation's largest
owners of transmission lines, uses a helicopter-borne laser that, flying at 750
feet, emits 50,000 pulses per second toward the towers and lines below and takes
6 million measurements per mile. An onboard computer records the data and
translates them into an illustration of the power line. National Grid can
calculate to the inch how much sag the line has and how much it might drop on a
hot summer's day. The company estimates the technology will save it $1.8 million
in the next five years.
Transformers More than $200 billion worth of huge and
heavy transformer boxes are laid out across U.S. grid systems, helping to
increase generator voltage for transmission, or step it down at the other end.
(Most of the nation's transformers are celebrating their 40th birthday.)
Internal temperatures can reach 150 degrees or more, so they're cooled and
insulated with oil. Utilities spot trouble with these devices by measuring the
level of eight gases, including methane and carbon dioxide, that form when the
oil's hydrocarbons start to break down. Typically, this procedure is done once a
year.
Serveron of Hillsboro, Ore. sells a
mini gas chromatograph that mounts beside a transformer, sampling the internal
gases every four hours. It sends the data wirelessly to operators who can
distinguish between innocent anomalies resulting from weather and signs
indicating the brewing of real trouble. Each TrueGas product costs $33,500 plus
$3,000 per year for data gathering--cheaper than replacing a transformer at up
to $5 million. The company just raised $9 million in venture capital.
Meters Utilities are using wireless meters
to monitor home power use remotely. Optimal Technologies has created wireless
sensors called Modbots that plug into electrical outlets and connect with
appliances or lighting systems. They relay information--room temperature,
motion, lighting, power and voltage--back to a central hub. If the $60 Modbot
notices no one is around, it may turn off an air conditioner or the
lights.
Maximum Performance Group makes a
similar product for clients like the P.C. Richard & Son electronics and
appliance chain in New York City. It can sense diminishing daylight and turn on
outside signage or set off an alarm the instant an HVAC system kicks out.
Comverge, based in East Hanover, N.J., has an
experimental load-management project under way in Utah. The company has
installed devices on hundreds of residential air conditioners. If the local
utility needs megawatts on a hot summer day, Comverge can ratchet down
compressors without homeowners knowing.
Distributed Generation The blackout put a lot more oomph
behind the idea of creating power directly on the factory floor. Capstone
Turbine Corp. makes low-pollution natural gas turbines of 30 to 200 kilowatts
whose excess juice can be sold back to the utility. Recently a project in
Vermont used a "microgrid" that links residential and commercial buildings into
one system to shield them from a massive blackout or power interruption.
Charts
Power Line
Diagram
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