Stanford Smart Grid Series - Efrin Ibraham

Last Wednesday I went to the first in a series on the Smart Grid.  It was an overview by Efirn Ibraham from EPRI  (Electric Power Research Institute).  He is a compelling and accomplished speaker and EPRI has some of the best available data.  Among other things he recommended looking at NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap. This paper provides a roadmap of the development of standards so that there won't be many little grids, but one Smart Grid where energy can flow to where it is most needed.

There are several points Ibraham makes whenever I see him that are somewhat surprising.  The best way to see the point of view of EPRI is to look at the document EPRI Prism Analysis.  This shows a proposed mix of energy sources that can meet carbon reduction goals and provide enough energy.  Note that renewables are only 15% of the mix.  The economics of solar puzzle me because solar panels are currently too expensive for most people to afford, yet they are subsidized by governments and utilities companies.  The consequence is that our taxes subsidize something most of us do not benefit from.  Thought it may be argued that the use of more renewables benefits us all, subsidizing the wealthy may not be the best path.  I am agnostic about this, but it is intriguing.

What do the utility companies get out of it?  Ibraham recommended a paper, The Power of Five Percent,  which show that the marginal cost of the last 5% of power is huge so reduction in peak demand makes huge returns for the power companies. 


Finally, I want to recommend that you look at this organization The Gridwise Alliance for some ideas of what is being pushed.

It is rare that even a simple project will go completely as planned.  The Smart Grid is an ill-defined scheme by hundreds of countries and many thousands of businesses so anything we hear now needs to be taken with several grains of salt.  That is why I am bringing together people with different views so we can use our own intuition to make better guesses.  Please come and contributed to The Electric Salon