Unreliable power supply and prices are causing companies to seek the latest active energy management technologies to enhance energy security, says Darren Farrar, customer marketing manager at Schneider Electric
The rise of renewable energy and the omnidirectional flow of power means our energy networks are more decentralised than ever before. In this brave new world, grid operation becomes more complex, and resilience and reliability more important. Severe weather events, value chain disruption and unreliable power supply and prices are causing many companies to seek the latest technologies to enhance energy security and responsiveness to bolster operations for the future.
Reliability under review
Reliability of power supply is a real – and growing – concern. A recent survey of 250 energy managers indicated that 25 per cent of companies experience regular power outages. These power disruptions can be costly: 18 per cent of responding companies had experienced an outage that cost the equivalent of £70,000 or more.
The key barrier to achieving reliable power supply is either an immature or ageing grid. For instance, in India, where more than 240 million people still lack access to power, 50 per cent of electricity generation is wasted due to poor transmission to rural areas, as well as power theft. In the UK this may be seen by some as irrelevant due to our mature grid and regulated networks.
However, the millions and millions pumped into asset replacement by the DNOs over the past eight years have not increased the overall health of the UK’s distribution network and ageing assets are still a major concern. On top of this, our electricity network was designed many years ago to carry power in one direction from large coal plants in rural areas to population centres.
The key to the reliability problem is an integrated, active approach to energy management that enables resilience with its diversity of supply and demand. Active energy management is a holistic view of the strategies, data and resources needed to reduce consumption, drive innovation and maximise savings. Rather than treating the procurement, dispensation and evolution of energy as disparate activities, the Active Energy Management approach assumes that these activities are interdependent and indispensable.
Variety is the key
By addressing operational efficiency, enabled by digitisation and technology, operators can reduce susceptibility to outages and potential downtime. Strategically sourcing energy supply from a diverse portfolio that includes renewable generation reduces risk while maximising continuity. Investing in new energy opportunities and distributed energy resources (DERs) — like demand response, battery storage, smart grid technologies, fuel cells, combined heat and power, and distributed solar — can further the development of corporate assets that are responsive, agile, and reliable.
The result is both cost and carbon savings. Reductions in resource consumption from efficiency projects lower carbon emissions and the money saved can be used to fund sustainability projects. Once a cost centre, clean, green and renewable electricity is now cheaper than conventional generation in more than 60 countries, and will be the most inexpensive source of power everywhere by 2020. DERs continue to drive savings by allowing organisations to store power to use during peak load times and by reducing transmission utility charges.
The future is micro
As more entities embark on the Active Energy Management journey and explore the flexibility of DERs, it is inevitable that there will be a growth in the deployment of microgrids to achieve grid autonomy. A self-contained, localised grid that typically includes a combination of generation and storage assets, microgrids can both integrate with existing grids or operate independently in “island mode.” This flexibility and reliance on DERs makes them the epitome of true energy resilience.
Microgrids can be used as stand-alone power generation sources — as they are in both rural or off-grid electrification, or disconnected, remote geographies — or, as backup power stations that ensure continuity of critical systems. And new financing models, such as microgrids-as-a-service, mean that companies can invest in a system without any upfront costs.
Active Energy Management has proven highly effective in boosting grid reliability and resilience. However, implementation sadly lags behind corporate intentions. While the majority prioritise energy efficiency programmes for the money they save, many companies are missing out on the advantages of strengthening the energy network. We cannot achieve real progress in transforming how we generate and consume energy until we manage to combine both these strategies into one.
Darren Farrar is customer marketing manager at Schneider Electric
The key to active energy management is to develop a simple, robust and sustainable storage system (ie not battery based). My Technology Centre has been developing a low RPM-high inertia flywheel-based storage system that could be used in the same way for decades without any loss in efficiency or performance (see: engineering.com/ProjectBoard). We believe that the results of the introduction of this development would be profound and would open up many beneficial possibilities in energy management. For example, it would enable a more effective Smart metering, because they could be told to do more than just measure the amount and time energy flows into the customers’ premises. They could be used to trigger when energy flows into -and out of – their storage systems. If networked, possibly hosted on the Blockchain, they could be used to ‘balance’ the supply/storage demand and may eventually have AI and learning capability to adjust the storage-generation flows for certain seasons, weather conditions, frequency drops etc. Storage at point of demand would also do much to reduce the horrifying statistic in this article that in India: ’50 per cent of electricity generation is wasted due to poor transmission to rural areas, as well as power theft’.
Very informative piece: thank you.
Just for info: whilst notionally long retired, I have been recently asked to offer some thoughts to salvage a polyester filament plant in a country which, 50 years ago, the US was dropping ‘stuff’ upon to try to shut-down its ability to wage war. One of the issues with the manufacture of premium quality synthetic fibres is the absolute need for the electricity supply to be uniform: if not, what were termed “full-stops linked by dashes” can be the likely result. In this case, the power failed and the back-up (primarily there to keep the instruments controlling the process running and to keep the polymer molten) was not enough to do so. The polymer froze in the manifolds: and when the power was restored, simply cooked itself into carbon. Very expensive noise (the extruders grinding themselves to destruction) and necessary total dismantling of the plant for a total clean-out followed. I wonder who might have wished to disrupt the ability to wage economic war ?