Transcript Demand-Side CO2 Reduction Using Advanced Power Meters

Demand-Side CO2 Reduction
Using Advanced Power Meters
Electric Utilities Environment Conference
Tucson, Arizona USA
January 22, 2007
Jeffrey H. Michel
USCL Corporation / Carmichael, California USA
Ing.- Büro Michel / Regis-Breitingen, Germany
[email protected]
Two Essential Developments
Shaping the 21st Century
• The precipitous warming of the Earth’s
atmosphere by greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions from fossil fuel combustion
• The omnipresence of electronic computers
for data processing
The immense computing power available to
mankind is not yet being strategically employed
to reduce and eliminate wherever possible
energy usage contributing to climate change.
EU Kyoto Targets in Question
Greenhouse
gas emissions
in the EU-15
states are
diverging from
a linear Kyoto
reduction path
to -8% by 2010
because of a
4.4% rise in
CO2 emissions
from fossil fuel
use since the
base year 1990.
European Environment Agency: “Only two Member
States — Sweden and the United Kingdom — expect that
existing domestic policies and measures alone will be
sufficient to meet or even exceed their burden-sharing
targets. All others are projected to be significantly above
their commitments with their existing domestic policies and
measures.” (EEA Report 8/2005, p. 16)
Increasing Global Warming Risks
Steadily rising CO2
concentrations in the
atmosphere now
present a high risk of
exceeding a tolerable
maximum global
warming level of 2°C.
Warming risks at parts per million by volume of CO2
Climate change up to the present “has already
doubled the risk of heat waves (with) resulting
unusually large numbers of heat-related deaths.”
M.G.J. den Elzen, M. Meinshausen, Meeting the EU 2°C
climate target: global and regional emission implications
(Bilthoven: Netherlands Environmental Assessment
Agency, Report 728001031/2005), pp. 6, 17.
Rising Prices, Yet Greater Consumption
Price-driven
efficiency
technologies
have lowered
the energy
input of many
applications,
but the number
of applications
worldwide has
proliferated.
Market Trends vs. Climate Policy
If overall carbon
emissions are
reduced to avoid
exceeding a CO2
concentration of
450 ppmv, while
current trends in
aviation emissions
remain unchecked,
then ALL fossil fuel
emissions in
Europe by midcentury will be due
to air travel.
Decarbonising the UK. Energy for a Climate Conscious
Future (Norwich: Tyndall Centre for Climate Change
Research, 2005) p. 49.
Outdated Power Plants Produce
over 1 kg CO2/kWh
• Outdated power plants are
operated worldwide to avoid
investing in efficient but
expensive new installations.
• At RWE in Germany, 18
CO2-intensive lignite (brown
coal) power plants have
been in operation at four
locations for over40 years.
• The power industry produces
40% of global CO2 emissions
and thus could contribute
greatly to Kyoto fulfillment.
Confronting Climate Change with
Distributed Computer Networks
• Millions of computers already
in service would hypothetically
be available to monitor and
control fossil fuel usage.
• However, home computers in
continuous operation might
use more electricity than the
energy they could save.
• Data integrity from an
indeterminate network of
computers would require
independent verification.
• Only the usage habits of
computer owners would be
tracked.
Microprocessor-Based Power Meters
•
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The existing power meter infrastructure can be
upgraded with microprocessors to implement a
networked energy monitoring and control system.
Meters are installed in every household and business.
Electricity being measured likewise powers the meter.
The meter microprocessor operates continuously to
measure power consumption.
Measurements performed with high accuracy requiring
no third-party data verification.
Standardized design reduces hardware and
maintenance costs.
Emissions Trading as an
Incentive to Fossil Fuel Efficiency
• Years or even decades often intervene between fuel
price increases and ensuing investments in fuel-efficient
technologies.
• CO2 emissions trading raises the incentive to make
timely investments in lowering carbon fuel intensities.
• The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) covers CO2
emissions in industrial installations, less than half (40% 46%) of total greenhouse gases.
• Various regions of North America are commited to
carbon emissions trading. Several practices have
already effectively included the utility customer into
carbon emissions reduction strategies.
Demand Response: CO2 Reduction
in the United States
Demand
response
reduces the
requirements
for generating
capacity
reserves and
thus provides
CO2 avoidance.
Real-time intercommunication between each
power meter and the grid operator allows dynamic
pricing signals and switching commands to be
received by the customer.
Data Feedback for
Demand-Side Efficiency
The British study
Towards Effective Energy
Information (July 2003)
has found that the
monthly feedback of
printed and graphical
data to the customer
offers potential
sustained energy
savings of 5 to 10%.
Yearly billing still
prevails in most of
Europe.
Monthly Comparisons
Cross-Comparisons
Real-Time Pricing
Enhances Consumer Awareness
• Real-time pricing enhances the
awareness of customers to
economically achievable
savings using feedback
information on personal
demand, aggregate grid load,
and environmental costs.
• By contrast, conventional
decisions on usage rely on
manual meter readings with no
relationship to grid load or the
environment. A portion of
available energy resources is
invariably lost to ineffective
consumer usage decisions.
Demand-Side Deficits in Europe
• Business and regulatory practices persisting
from former closed energy markets
• Low power demand of households without
electrical climate control or water heating
• Few power interruptions of significance
• Inexpensive manual yearly billing procedures
• Close alignment of the Emissions Trading
Scheme toward existing power industry
conditions, inhibiting any motivation to
implement demand-side CO2 reduction
Promise of Demand-Response
Techniques for Kyoto Compliance
• Reliance on CO2-intensive power plants
would be reduced, just as the need for
certain generating capacities in the United
States has been avoided by demand
response.
• The ability to align loads with available
capacities would allow greater amounts of
CO2-free wind and solar power to be used
despite intermittent availability.
EU Directive 2006/32/EC: A Legal
Framework Suitable for AMI
(Article 13)
• Final customers shall be provided with competitively
priced individual meters that accurately reflect the
final customer's actual energy consumption and
that provide information on actual time of use.
• Billing shall be performed frequently enough to
enable customers to regulate their own energy
consumption.
• Comparisons must be possible of current and past
energy consumption, and of current consumption with
an average normalised or benchmarked user of
energy in the same user category.
AMI Cost Defrayment through
Multiple Functionality
• Customers: Multiple metering of power, water,
heating, intrusion alarm, smoke alarm, medical
emergency alarm (pendant transmitter), smart
appliance and device control
• Utilities: Service outage/restoration reporting,
remote service connect & disconnect, theft of
power reporting, over voltage and under voltage
reporting, power factor monitoring, emergency
disconnect, service personnel reporting
• Prepayment “smart card” accounting for mutual
cost benefits
Centralized Data Administration
An advanced power
meter can function as
a Network Gateway
intercommunicating
with:
• monitoring, control,
and display devices
on the premises via
a wireless local area
network and
• utilities and other
service providers
via the Internet in
an Advanced
Metering
Infrastructure AMI
USCL Corporation
Demand-Side CO2 Reduction
• Directive 2006/32/EC emphasizes that improved
energy end-use efficiency will contribute to the
"reduction of primary energy consumption, to the
mitigation of CO2 and other greenhouse gas
emissions and thereby to the prevention of
dangerous climate change".
• Usage decisions can therefore be directed to
eliminating either fuels or emissions containing
carbon.
• CO2 can afford greater environmental benefits as
the lead parameter, for instance, in preventing a
switch to electricity from high-carbon fuels.
Private CO2 Allowance Purchases
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Directive 2003/87/EC on emissions trading: EU
allowances (EUA) may be transferred between
any persons within the European Community.
While the trading registration fee generally
excludes private individuals from participation,
the allowances may be bought by registered
agencies and subsequently resold.
Article 19 states that any person may hold
allowances.
Deletion of CO2 Allowances
TheCompensators (www.thecompensators.org) in Potsdam, Germany, is
dedicated to deleting emission allowances from the EU Emissions Trading
Scheme. The allowances are retired from trading by the purchaser.
Svenska Naturskyddsföreningen (SNF), the largest
environmental organization in Sweden, offers emissions
certificates at http://skarv.snf.se/snf/co2/index.asp for 350
Kroner (about 39 euros, or 50 dollars) per ton. By the end
of 2006, over 6000 people had purchased allowances to
eliminate them from trading.
CO2 Trading at the Power Meter
The ability to withdraw ETS allocations
from circulation using a smart card
terminal at each power meter would allow
the public at large to exert a continuous,
potentially massive influence on the
climate-related pricing of electricity.
The commercial risks inherent to planning and operating fossil fuel
power plants would increase as allocations were removed from the
market. Investments in renewable energies, on the other hand,
would become more secure, reducing the need for public subsidies
and fixed feed-in tariffs to promote their use.
Carbon Rationing for Precluding
Resource Shortages
Proposals for carbon
rationing are prevalent
in the United Kingdom,
which experienced two
wartime submarine
blockades in the 20th
century and is now
confronted with
dwindling fossil fuel
supplies in the North
Sea.
Equitable Fossil Fuel Rationing
The allocation of equitable
carbon allowances for fossil
fuel emissions to all British
citizens was first proposed in
1996 by Dr. David Fleming as
Domestic Tradable Quotas
(DTQs).
Domestic Tradable Quotas: A policy
instrument for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions from energy use (Norwich:
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change
Research, December 2005).
The allowances would be
registered on a swipe card
that could be inserted into
utility meters for booking
carbon credits.
CO2 Reduction Networks
• AMI intercommunication
capabilities allow energy
data to be exchanged
with other consumers.
• The resulting enhanced
transparency of energy
usage can reveal
additional CO2 reduction
potentials that would not
otherwise have been
apparent.
Cross-comparisons of heating
energy usage in the German
village of Heuersdorf have
revealed high unsuspected
variations in consumption.
Networked CO2 Avoidance
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Metering service companies could use
advanced meters to establish energy
efficiency networks (CO2-free virtual
power stations) for their customer base,
reducing aggregate emissions.
Meter interlinks between photovoltaic
installations would represent a
distributed solar power plant.