Our country’s electric grid is a dinosaur of the modern technological era. Luckily, the Recovery and Reinvestment Act makes a significant investment in bringing it up to speed. However, updating the grid can mean very different things to utility companies, engineers, renewable energy developers, and homeowners.Daniel Kammen, the Senior Environmental Policy Advisor for the Obama campaign, discussed these issues last week on NPR’s Science Friday. He acknowledged vital grid system updates to detect faults, autonomously reroute power, and manage heat – but Kammen also discussed the need to decentralize power production and storage. He described a “system that allows individual homeowners to interact with the grid as if it’s the big eBay of energy”. This important idea should fundamentally change the power industry over the next decade.
In other words, every home or building should be able to manage its energy use, buy power based on real-time prices, produce power, store power, and sell it back to the grid. This is also a key component in expanding the adoption of onsite renewable technologies like photovoltaic panels – which can act like small power plants. Furthermore, there are a variety of companies who are creating onsite energy management systems to help consumers manage their appliances, renewable energy production, electric vehicle charging, and power usage via the internet.
Imagine getting an email on your Blackberry or iPhone alerting you to lower electric rates – you could virtually control your home’s energy usage by drawing power into onsite batteries during low-cost periods. In addition to lowering consumers’ electric bills, this decision would also lower the energy demand on the grid during peak periods.
GridPoint is developing onsite energy management systems to help people take control of their energy usage. Their system can control house appliances, show real-time energy rates, manage energy use, and store energy. GridPoint is also touting the advantages of charging electric vehicles through their integrated system. They envision a program where utilities will lease GridPoint systems to residences when they turn on electric service. This will help distribute the system cost and allow utilities to closely monitor and predict consumer energy demand at the same time.
To integrate these energy management systems in communication and web platforms, Google recently announced the development of the PowerMeter. The PowerMeter is a platform that bridges the gap between hardware and data management – and brings energy information to your phone or laptop.
With the political push for a smarter grid and stimulus funds on the way, we should see a revolutionized energy use and management system emerge. Companies like GridPoint and Google will help make smarter energy consumers and take pressure off the overloaded grid. With a smart grid in place, green buildings can enjoy greater energy-efficiency through better power management.
Rayna Gordon-Hellman
rayna@medized.com
415-994-6549 office
