Smart Grids and Solar Energy
Tags: electricity, roofray, smart grid, smart meter, solar, wind
Losing Power by jeepskate (flickr)
A few days ago, Discovery.com Tech released an interesting video about “smart grids.” Smart grids are electricity networks that can better match electrical demand with electricity supply.
The price of electricity changes in each hour, day, month, and year, because there may be a shortage of electricity supplied (high price) or not enough demand for electricity (low price). For example, electricity is usually expensive in the evening when people are cooking, doing laundry, watching TV, and turning lights on. Electricity is also expensive during work hours, as offices and manufacturing facilities require energy. Electricity can be expensive in the summer, because people turn on air conditioning. The same is true for heating in the winter. As you can see, energy prices can be quite variable as the amount of electricity we use changes frequently.
So how can smart meters help? Smart meters are installed in buildings to measure how much electricity is used and when it is used. Regular meters by contrast just record the total amount of electricity used. Because smart meters measure when electricity is used, energy companies can better predict how to supply energy during the day, helping to make energy costs more predictable. When many people install smart meters, the electrical grid becomes smarter, also. So, the energy network supplies electricity exactly where and when it is needed.
Smart grids are very important for the deployment of renewable energy generation. Solar energy and wind energy are unpredictable, so power companies are hesitant to adopt the technologies. To explain, if renewable technologies produce too much electricity, the power grid may experience a surge, which can damage the grid. If it the technologies do not produce enough energy, power companies have to purchase energy from other power companies, making energy more expensive. Otherwise the grid cannot maintain itself. Overall, unpredictable supplies put the grid at risk of brownouts and blackouts. But, smart grids are more resilient because electricity can be routed just as it’s needed. Encouragingly, my local power company, Duke Energy, is researching smart grids.
Smart meters can help people and businesses, too. As people learn more about how much electricity they use at certain times of day and why energy at that hour is more expensive, they can change their behavior. For example, you may decide to wash and dry laundry in the evening instead of during the day. Smart meters can also help people reduce energy use without any effort. The Discovery.com video mentions refrigerators that communicate with the meter to run a defrost cycle when electricity is cheapest. Smart meters also let people sell energy that they create from solar panels or micro-turbines back to the electricity grid, offsetting the cost of installing the equipment. Reducing electricity use and changing the composition of electricity generation to include more renewable fuels are integral to reducing carbon emissions.
Tools are making it much easier for homeowners to install solar panels. RoofRay, for example, lets you find your home on Google maps to estimate your roof’s potential for solar energy creation and how much money this may save you in the long run.
For some other information about smart grids and smart meters, check out this Treehugger.com link.
