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Energy Briefs have a new look!
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We hope you have enjoyed reading Michaels Engineering Energy Briefs. We have updated our look and added new features to Energy Briefs to help you easily find the information you are looking for.
Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.
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Did You Know...
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...you could cut your energy bills by 10% or more with demand response.
...assuming the normal power plant design and traditional implementation, a new power plant would have to come on line every week over the next 20 years to supply the growing capacity in the United States.
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Recent Update
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Michaels Engineering teams with Focus on Energy for New Construction Program.
[read more] |
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DO YOU WANT A POWER PLANT IN
YOUR BACKYARD?
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 The demand for electricity is growing at an
alarming rate, fueling the need for more power plants in the U.S. Operators of the power grids in California and
New England reported that peak consumption in July, 2006 was 4.58% greater than
in 2005. This is twice the growth rate predicted by US DOE for this
period. According to the North American Electric Reliability Council
(NERC), demand for electricity is expected to increase by 212 GW over the next
20 years (enough to power approximately 100 million homes)! Assuming the
normal power plant design and traditional implementation, a new power plant
would have to come on line every week over the next 20 years to supply this
capacity. Although this scenario may be unlikely, with 52 new power plants
popping up every year, the chances are pretty good that you'll end up with one
in your backyard.
In addition, the infrastructure to deliver
energy from these generators to end users is aging and already has serious
capacity issues in some areas.
How do we fix the problem without adding more power plants and
transmission and distribution lines? The answer is a comprehensive
portfolio of options to address energy demand in the United States.
Demand response clearly has a critical role to play in the national strategy. |
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WHAT IS DEMAND RESPONSE?
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Demand response is simply managing the demand
for electricity in response to a utility delivery issue. The utility
delivery issue may be reliability or price driven. Many utilities have
demand response programs to shave peak during periods when electricity is
expensive to generate or acquire. Paying customers to reduce demand can
be less costly than purchasing or generating energy. Similarly, if the
demand for electricity is exceeding supply and energy cannot be purchased, a
serious reliability situation is developing. If left unchecked, this
situation would overtax the electrical delivery system causing system
outages. More likely, system operators would implement brownouts or
blackouts to save the system.
Two options are available for avoiding
reliability issues: build more power plants and delivery
lines, or curb demand during peak periods, which typically occur during the
hottest period of the summer.
Demand response programs have existed for years. Examples of demand
response programs include direct load control, curtailable, and interruptible
programs. Direct load control programs allow the utility to control end
uses on customer premises. In residential programs, this can be a simple
cycling switch that cycles a home's air conditioning. The impact on the
home's energy use is small but when thousands of homes are added together, the
aggregated impact is significant. Similar programs target commercial air
conditioning or even industrial process loads.
In curtailable and interruptible programs, the customer usually responds
to a message from the utility and reduces load by predetermined or contracted
amounts. The control is in the customers' hands but there is usually a
stiff penalty for non-compliance. The
end user MUST understand the agreement they are making with the utility and
what impact it will have on their business or operation during a control
event. Note however, that utilities
typically limit the number of hours during which they will ask for curtailment,
to something in the range of 50 to 100 hours per year.
Price response programs are
sometimes included in demand response. Examples of these programs include
critical peak pricing, demand bidding, time-of-use, and real time
pricing. These programs are rate driven and the customer is responding to
price signals. |
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LARGE COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL DEMAND RESPONSE
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 Many utilities have
rate-embedded demand response programs. These programs offer a discount
on demand charges or pay the end user for reducing load during an event.
Programs that reduce monthly demand charges for participation can reduce an end
user's annual electric bill by as much as 10% and in some cases significantly more
if the curtailable load is a significant percent of the total facility
demand. Programs that pay for each event can be significant as
well. The incentive in this case can range from $7 to over $100 per KW
per event. |
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WANT MORE?
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Demand response
programs will play an important role in the nation's energy strategy, hopefully preventing power plants from popping up in your backyard. National and state regulations will require
utilities to be aggressive. Also, there
are potentially significant financial and other benefits to participating in
utility demand response programs. Stay tuned to future Energy Briefs to learn more about these benefits and to find out if demand response is right for you. |
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 For more information about this topic or additional energy concerns, please contact Gary Ambach at (608) 785-1900 or GLA@MichaelsEngineering.com. |
| Gary Ambach
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