Part Two: The Electric Grid—Now and in the Future

Jun 18, 2007 3:06 PM
By Lou Pechi, President, STRATA-Strategic Advisors, San Diego

Last month, I pondered the magnitude of the electrical grid, its availability (uptime), implementation cost and some common methods that increase availability to users (read: Part One: The Electric Grid—Now and in the Future). Now I’d like to consider the possible impact of recent trends on the grid and speculate as to where the electrical grid may be headed in the future.

Like the Blob from the sci-fi movies of the 1950s, the electrical grid is a living, breathing ever-expanding system. It not only extends its tentacles to all reaches of the system, but morphs into other forms as power requirements change. Those transformations of power at the edge of the grid can, in turn, influence how power flows both from and back to the grid.

For example, in many applications there’s a trend toward high reliability and uptime. This requirement has lead to the addition of energy generators and storage tanks at the extremities of the grid’s tentacles. Although these sources spring into action whenever there is a shortage or disruption of service, most of the time they sit idle. But it is feasible that backup storage and generation capabilities could be used to feed the grid during peaks in energy demand — either now or in the future. By monitoring such energy returns to the grid, the system could provide revenue to users.

Alternative energy sources already return power to the grid, helping to alleviate the burden on conventional energy sources. Turbines, windmills, solar farms and sea-wave energy generators are just a few such alternative energy systems that can augment the oil, coal, water and nuclear powered generating plants.

Another trend is that devices are breaking away from the power grid’s tentacles. Appliances like The Rumba Vacuum cleaner have broken the electrical leash, returning to the charging station only when the hunger for additional power becomes overwhelming. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which are presently on the drawing boards, could become another example.

When they become available, PHEVs will sit in the garage over night and suck up the juice. Because these vehicles will still have a gas tank, they’ll be capable of longer driving excursions than a pure electric vehicle. And because they’ll be capable of holding large amounts of energy, their batteries may one day be used to deliver backup power to the grid during peak power requirements.

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© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.