The Role Of Smart Grids And AI In The Race To Zero Emissions

If energy is produced in many places, you can simply divert power from another nearby generation node “>

The term “smart grid” encompasses much more than just power delivery, though that is an important factor. At its core, the main pillar of a smart grid is a two-way connection of energy and information, but it goes much deeper than that. For maximum effectiveness and efficiency, a smart grid infrastructure should also include two more pillars: distributed generation and AI.

According toHarvard’s Science in the News, the current power plant system in the US was “not built to accommodate the diversification in energy sources, especially not the rise in renewable resources.” In our current system, when demand outpaces supply, utility providers source energy from ‘peaker plants’ (backup fossil fuel-powered plants) at a minute’s notice – just barely avoiding catastrophe.

If nothing changes, these problems will only be exacerbated as consumer and commercial energy needs increase.

Because of this, The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently prioritized the development of a “fully automated power delivery network that monitors and controls every consumer and node, ensuring a two-way flow of electricity and information,” aka Smart Grid Technology.

Why is distributed generation so important to smart grid infrastructure? When you produce electricity centrally, you have to carry that energy over extremely long distances via (ugly) power lines. This results in about 15% of the electricity that’s generated being lost in transmission and if a single line is compromised, it can leave all of the hundreds or thousands of homes that are downstream from the broken line without power.

In more extreme (but still fairly common) cases like tornadoes or ice storms, dozens of lines can be compromised at one time, sometimes leaving homes without power for days or weeks and forcing the utility to work overtime, prioritizing which lines to fix first and sending crews to fix them as quickly as possible.

For more information on distributed generation – I spoke with Josiah Nelson, Chairman and CEO atTrolysis, a renewable energy company producing on-site, on-demand hydrogen power from aluminum and water. At times of low energy status in the network, namely when the batteries are discharged and the applied generators (such as photovoltaic, wind, or microhydro power plants) cannot supply energy, hydrogen fuel cells can be activated – creating more efficient, reliable energy sources.

These points highlight one of the huge benefits of distributed generation in a smart grid. If energy is produced in many places, you can simply divert power from another nearby generation node  to supply the homes affected by a compromised line. This makes the grid extremely resilient and, in most cases, there will be no loss of power at all.

Taking a step further than that, grid operators can dynamically change which type of generation will supply an area based on many variables, including the cheapest cost and highest efficiency. This means the implementation costs can be offset relatively quickly by the vastly cheaper and more efficient system.

According to Nelson, fuel cells and hydrogen can play an important role in the rapidly emerging smart grid.

Adam Forni ofNavigantconfirms this point, “ Hydrogen power-to-gas has the potential to become an important and versatile energy storage medium , supporting integration of intermittent renewable generation across a wide range of time periods, from seconds all the way to seasonal storage. However, economics are crucial, and generating hydrogen cheaply has been difficult to date.”

One mile of hydrogen pipeline costs about $765,000. A hydrogen storage tank large enough to support a facility’s needs is around $5 million and those are costs you have to pay before you can even start buying hydrogen.