There have been a few high profile entries in the energy storage market, including Tesla whose Powerwall series offers some degree of independence from
utility grids in addition to being an emergency backup system.
«envisions affordable, factory - built energy efficient mobile home units that meet International Residential Code for housing with structurally - sound foundations, demountable for easy relocation, and can function in a place with a limited infrastructure or
no utility grid in - place....
Not exact matches
In a Friday update, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that for a brief period on March 11th, utility - scale solar accounted for 40 % of net grid power produced in Californi
In a Friday update, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that for a brief period on March 11th,
utility - scale solar accounted for 40 % of net
grid power produced
in Californi
in California.
In Japan,
utilities are building battery arrays as powerful as 300 megawatts for
grid storage.
Advocates counter that the higher the concentration of rooftop solar systems
in a neighborhood, the less a
utility has to spend on distribution to shore up
grid reliability.
In May, for instance, SolarCity introduced a set of services for
utilities, including development of solar power plants, battery storage and other
grid planning resources.
Distributed solar systems require additional upgrades to the power
grid, including enabling the
grid to operate
in both directions, and most
utilities are pushing back against covering those upgrade expenses.
Rossello highlighted how the island's electrical
grid, which was severely dilapidated even prior to the storms, was obsolete and working off of a generation system that was 28 years older than the average electric power
utility in the United States.
The region around San Diego will soon get two big battery projects that will help the local
utility add
in more clean energy and better manage the power
grid.
Energy regulators
in the state are battling
utility companies over net metering, which is the process through which solar customers get a credit for a certain amount of electricity that they send back to the
grid.
The
utilities are trying to charge solar users more
in grid - fees.
The company has one Connecticut service station,
in Milford, and five super-charging stations that can provide up to 170 miles of range
in as little as 30 minutes, though the charge rate depends on weather, demands on the
utility grid, and other factors.
Despite warnings from staff and ignoring input from lawyers, Puerto Rico's bankrupt
utility signed a massive $ 300 million contract on October 17 with a tiny, inexperienced Montana company to rebuild its damaged electric
grid in the aftermath of the Hurricane Maria disaster.
The head of Puerto Rico's public
utility company, PREPA, resigned Friday afternoon following a series of blunders
in the effort to restore Puerto Rico's power
grid.
«This funding and the demonstration project ensure that Ontario will continue to lead
in the development of smart
grid technology,» said Bob Leigh, President, Prolucid Technologies Inc. «
Utilities globally face significant challenges to change the model of power consumption, reducing greenhouse gases and increasing the efficiency of the
grid.
Generally, experienced
utility crews take on the daunting task of repairing power
grids in most US disaster zones.
Turns out, the culprit was a semi-truck, which knocked over a
utility pole and knocked out a transformer (the power -
grid kind, not the robot kind)
in Texas, which
in turn started a chain of events that ended up taking down a bunch of sites hosted by server provider Rackspace.
He, therefore, assured that «on the basis of my country's specific needs, Government is keen on developing
utility - scale solar energy projects, as well as accelerating the development of mini-
grid solutions
in off -
grid and island communities for lighting, irrigation and other economic activities».
The Cuomo administration estimates the Clean Energy Standard, chiefly its nuclear subsidies, will add an average of $ 2 to residential electric bills, although the Empire Center calculated the standard would hike the average residential bill by more than $ 2.09
in 2018 and by $ 3.40
in 2021 from added supply costs alone; compliance with the standard will necessitate major changes to the electrical
grid, which will separately drive up customer delivery charges as
utilities are forced to accommodate intermittent generation from solar panels and wind turbines.
The infrastructure challenges include installing tens of millions of charging stations, strengthening the
grid to handle electricity demand by plug -
ins, and changing
utility regulations to promote nighttime recharging
Smart electrical
grids and energy storage options would allow
utilities to operate more efficiently by helping them manage spikes
in the demand for electric power.
Such
grids will enable
utility companies to monitor energy use
in minute detail, allowing them to alter the price of electricity as demand changes.
Given the right financial incentives, though, many households may accept smart
grid strategies that let
utilities reduce power consumption
in homes at peak periods of demand, when wholesale electricity prices are highest, some analysts conclude.
Deployment of smart
grid technology from U.S.
utility control centers and power networks to consumers» homes could cost between $ 338 billion and $ 476 billion over the next 20 years, but will deliver $ 1.3 trillion to $ 2 trillion
in benefits over that period.
In comments to EPA, a number of
utilities and regional
grid operators have expressed concern about the plan's forecasts for renewables, fuel switching and energy efficiency gains.
Utility executives and smart
grid advocates agree that apart from the smart
grid projects funded by $ 4 billion
in federal stimulus grants, most current smart
grid investment is going into improving the efficiency, reliability and profitability of power supply, rather than reaching consumers directly.
Some stakeholders are concerned that
utility proposals for cost recovery of smart
grid investments would lead to significantly higher monthly bills and a shift
in the risk of investment from
utilities to ratepayers.
This tail - wagging - the - dog scheme is approaching a critical test
in Boulder, Colorado, where Minneapolis - based
utility Xcel Energy is rolling out one of the first systemwide installations of a smart
grid.
Greater challenges lie ahead as smart
grid technologies proliferate
in the nation's transmission network and
utility control centers and eventually reach business and residential electricity customers
If solar rooftop arrays became as ubiquitous
in home design as chimneys, the U.S.
grid could indeed cease to exist — an end to power lines, electrical substations and transformers atop equally archaic wooden
utility poles.
The bigger hurdle to realizing the study's vision of a national
grid, however, may be persuading policymakers,
utilities investors, and landowners that it's a good idea, says Susan Tierney, a former U.S. assistant secretary of energy under President Clinton who's currently an energy consultant at the Analysis Group
in Boston.
Such capabilities explain why the evolution of the «smart
grid» is proceeding differently
in the
utility and customer sectors, say Shapard and Greg Guthridge, global managing director of
utility services for the consulting and technology services firm Accenture.
Most of the investment currently
in the United States is driven by
utilities seeking to get the
grid's backbone infrastructure modernized, he added.
Rather than pursuing the centralized power systems favored by big
utilities and international lending agencies, the initiative encourages the private sector to develop small independent
grids in remote regions.
In the United States, smart
grid investments that improve
utilities» ability to manage the
grid are moving faster overall than the rollout of smart meters, thermostats, appliances and displays at the household level, Guthridge said.
Utilities will be challenged to understand and respond to their customers» different levels of interest
in the smart
grid.
They see a market
in servicing large electric
utilities that want to incrementally expand their generation capacity, developing countries that can not afford or make good use of traditional reactors, and off -
grid and hard - to - power sites.
In June, German meteorologists, engineers and
utility firms began to test whether big data and machine learning can make these power sources more
grid - friendly.
And to avoid brownouts and absorb these surges,
utilities will need to spend between $ 70 billion and $ 180 billion
in grid upgrades — power plants and futuristic energy storage systems for which ratepayers would ultimately foot the bill.
Tomoaki Ikenaga, a partner and chairman of the energy practice group at the Tokyo law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, said
in an email exchange that Japan's regulated
utilities are also required to maintain
grid stability, while developers of new renewable energy projects are not subject to any requirements.
Shocks to the
grid But that pace of growth has placed a severe strain on the country's vertically integrated
utilities, according to Japanese energy experts, who say the surge
in solar power threatens to overwhelm the country's transmission and distribution systems, which since the 1950s have been organized to serve each of the 10 distinct distribution areas and are not bound together by a robust transmission system.
In order to provide a benefit to the customer and GM, someone — whether a
utility or
grid operator — will have to pay for the service.
The company that operates the state's power
grid has a contingency plan
in case of emergency shutdowns, says Dorothy Schnure, a spokesperson for Green Mountain Power, one of two local
utilities that purchase and resell much of the power from Vermont Yankee.
Nevertheless, some
utilities still prefer to keep coal to maintain a diversity of fuels
in the electric
grid.
Researchers have used the compound to create a high - performance «flow» battery, a leading contender for storing renewable power
in the electric
utility grid.
Last year, for example, the Edison Electric Institute, a
utility trade group,
in a report described rooftop solar as a «disruptive challenge» that could squeeze revenue and profits as customers defected, leaving companies forced to maintain
grids that serve all.
In New York, regulators are weighing allowing
utilities to get into the solar leasing business to meet the state's aggressive plan to incorporate more decentralized, renewable power onto the
grid.
A recent study found that an electric car charged by
utilities at night
in the regional
grid that stretches across Ohio, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia creates more greenhouse gas pollution than if owners plugged
in their vehicles at random times throughout the daytime, when the
utility fuel mixes are more varied.
For instance, the
utility can place panels
in locations that will most improve
grid stability.
Such a scene would have been difficult to imagine
in December 2015 when the Public
Utilities Commission voted to end net metering — as the credits paid to panel - owning homeowners for power sent back to the
grid are called.