Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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Motivating. Enabling real-time communication between consumer and
utility so consumers can tailor their energy consumption based on indi-
vidual preferences, such as price or environmental concerns.
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Resilient. Increasingly resistant to attack and natural disasters as it
becomes more decentralized and reinforced.
The Department of Energy in 2009 allocated $620 million to thirty-two
smart grid programs across the country, and another $1 billion is being
added from private investment money.
Currently, almost 300,000 megawatts of wind projects, more than
enough to meet 20 percent of our electricity needs, are waiting in line to
connect to the grid because there is inadequate transmission capacity to
carry the electricity they would produce.
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Waiting in a queue are 70,000
megawatts in the Upper Midwest, 50,000 megawatts in Texas, 40,000
megawatts in the Lower Midwest, 40,000 megawatts in the Great Lakes/
Mid-Atlantic, and 13,000 megawatts in California. Many of the windiest
sites have not been built for this reason. Achieving the 20 percent fi gure
or even approaching it would require moving large amounts of power
over long distances, from the windy, lightly populated plains in the
middle of the country to the coasts where a large part of the population
lives. Currently this cannot be done. The way the national grid exists
now would require half the country to move to the Midcontinent to
make use of the wind power there. This situation is analogous to being
able to manufacture a needed product but lacking the rail or highway
network to get it to the consumers.
Concern about inadequate transmission is shared by the solar, geo-
thermal, and hydropower industries as well. As of January 2009 in
California, more than 13,000 megawatts of large solar power plants
were waiting to connect to the grid. The hot deserts in the Southwest
where the solar power is best generated have few power lines. There is
a dire need to construct transmission lines to connect the scattered
sources of power supply in the United States to the populated areas
that need it. Just as the nation needs to be connected by a maze of
superhighways for an effective transportation network, we also need to
construct a “green power superhighway.”
The key to a cost-effective plan is the use of high-voltage transmission
lines in place of the low-voltage lines in use today (table 2.2). One 765
kilovolt line can carry as much power as six 345 kilovolt lines, reducing
the amount of land needed by a factor of four. Given their effi ciency,
very high voltage lines will signifi cantly reduce congestion and transmis-
sion losses, which will reduce power costs. A 765 kilovolt grid could
