Erfan Ibrahim of EPRI gave a wide ranging talk on Tuesday evening entitled "EPRI's Smart Grid Vision and AMI/HAN Research Overview." It was an Industry Outreach Event held at EPRI's bucolic Palo Alto campus. The talk touched upon Noam Chomsky, the effect of high magnetic fields on the menstruation cycles of cattle (long story), and the long-term energy portfolio of the United States. Mostly the latter.
EPRI is the Electric Power Resource Institute – a non-profit tax-exempt organization funded by utilities and founded in 1972 after the electric blackouts of the 1960s. EPRI has more than 700 employees, a budget in excess of $300 million and instigates more than 1,600 R&D projects annually. EPRI also engages in relatively high-risk technology innovation and research ranging from new energy storage technologies and new battery chemistries – all the way to cold fusion.
EPRI has four divisions:
- Generation
- Environment
- Power Delivery and Energy Utilization (smart grid is in this segment)
- Nuclear
Long View
Ibrahim set the stage saying: "As we gaze over the grazing animals and the rolling hills of Palo Alto - we think in the long term." How do we deal with coal? It's not going away. How to we lengthen the life of nuclear power plants?
According to Ibrahim, the solution is not wind mills. Nor is it solar. (Adequate transmission lines being just one of the obstacles)
Aim of the Smart Grid
"Our aim is to begin a very serious dialogue on how the smart grid will lead us to a low-carbon environment as a society," he said. Ibrahim emphasized that EPRI is not made up of idealogues, that "there is no panacea" to curb greenhouse gas emissions and that it is going to take a combination of many technologies to decarbonize the electric industry.
The smart grid is just one piece of the puzzle.
"It's not that the grid is dumb – it's that we haven't found a way to network all of these nodes," he said. There already is a relatively smart grid that functions at an almost 100 percent efficiency rate, according to Ibrahim. Siemens, ABB, etc. have been embedding intelligence into the grid for years.
"We have to intelligently embed networks to create a distributed intelligent network," said Ibrahim. How do we create this distributed intelligent network? EPRI is looking for a movement with realistic expectations. Not just an IP platform.
EPRI's Prism Study (downloadable here) is a carbon cap strategy that limns out the best way to transition to low emissions technology.
And that includes:
- Efficiency
- PHEVs
- Demand Response
- Weatherization, better water heaters, better pool pumps
- Enabling intermittent renewables via advanced transmission grids
- Expanded advanced light water reactor deployment – increased dependence on nuclear power is going to decrease carbon footprint
- Advanced coal plants with CO2 capture and storage
Nuclear and CCS
It's not that EPRI isn't a fan of of solar – Ibrahim acknowledged it's contribution but doesn't see it playing a large role in our energy mix. In fact, in large-scale, EPRI found that solar actually increased the price of electricity (I'll assume that's due to the necessity of having back up generation or expensive storage to cover solar's flaws.)
EPRI certainly sees nuclear, now about 20 percent of the U.S. energy mix as a necessity. Specifically, third-generation nukes – "passively safe type reactors."
And if you check the prism chart, EPRI also sees CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) as a necessary part of the U.S. energy picture. In fact, Erfan described coal with CCS
as a "disruptive technology" that will "revolutionize the industry."
EPRI's worldview is a glimpse into the utility mindset and must be considered as the likely trajectory our electric generators will follow.
