Ron Wyden — Making Smart Grid a Reality in the U.S.
Here’s some good news: U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden is a huge supporter of smart grid. In fact, he recently promised today to do everything he can to move the government’s “clumsy … machinery” to make the U.S. electric grid a smart grid.
Demographically, Wyden is perfect for the job (an Oregon Democrat). Thus it’s clear that not everyone on Capitol Hill agrees with him on this initiative. But the fact that anyone in that blighted region of the universe is even talking about the subject is a pleasant surprise. Per the report linked above:
(Wyden) is planning to hold oversight hearings with federal agencies responsible for building out the smart grid to understand whether they are working on all angles to facilitate a transition to a digitized grid, especially on the consumer end.
In addition, he said he’s working on a tax reform measure aimed at achieving “neutrality and parity” for all energy technologies that could strip tax incentives for the oil and nuclear industries. Technological parity, he said, would help newcomers such as energy storage, which is key for introducing more renewable energy and demand response to supply electricity.
“Modernization of the country’s electric system is under way. Are we going to allow that momentum to accelerate or just play nice and think it is going to happen by osmosis?” Wyden told the Edison Foundation’s “Powering the People” conference in Washington, D.C. “The Recovery Act certainly helped and promoted some innovation. … The question is now can we mobilize and make sure that the private sector, utilities, regulators, financial community and all those that helped us get us to where we are today reach the next level?”
A level playing field for clean energy? An end to subsidies for the oil companies? You have my full support, sir.
At first, when renewable energy systems were being pushed, it was widely argued that interconnecting the systems over a wide area would guarantee reliable power. It was often stated that the wind is always blowing someplace. Finally, finally, finally, it is now realized that without massive energy storage, renewables alone could not possibly do the job. But still there is a push to build more and more renewable systems even though currently there is no storage technology capable of storing, at an acceptable cost, the massive amounts of energy that would be required to make renewables reliable.
Of course there are many ways to store energy; the problem is to be able to store massive amounts of energy at an acceptable cost. Whether that problem will ever be solved remains to be seen, but we are being urged to proceed on the assumption that the storage problem will be solved and have no “plan B” in case it cannot be solved. That seems unwise.
Even if renewables cannot ever do the job alone, doing research on energy storage makes sense. If storage becomes economical, it could reduce the capacity requirements of nuclear systems by leveling the demand and by being able to provide power temporarily when a nuclear power plant temporarily fails. So, in any case, research on energy storage systems should continue.
People seem to expect too much of a “smart” grid. In a sense, the grid is similar to a highway; often improving traffic control and interchanges can permit highways to carry more traffic without congestion problems. Similarly, a “smart” grid could reduce required generating capacity and improve reliability by managing power flow more efficiently. However, a “smart” grid does not create power.
Probably working on a “smart” grid makes sense, but we must not expect it to accomplish miracles.