Community and Small-Scale Grid Innovation - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 189

Examining small-scale smart grid initiatives also highlights the power of the prosumer.
Although not all electricity consumers want to become prosumers, small-scale initiatives
maximize the opportunities for those who do want to assume a more active role. This
includes both hightech locavolts such as the politically active residents in the three
communities we discussed in this chapter, and people living in remote locations in the
Australian Outback or the interior of Alaska. The U.S. military's interest in becoming
an active participant in grid modernization illustrates yet another type of actor. Despite
its large financial portfolio and powerful political influence, the U.S. military generally
purchased power from the local utility, and accepted the passive role of consumer when it
came to electricity. With the advent of smart microgrids it has strategically embraced the
role of prosumer, including a reimagination of what services and tactical advantages the
electric grid can and should provide (Perera 2012 ) .
These initiatives demonstrate how smart grid may provide electricity for people who
currently have no access. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory argue
that one of the most important reasons to develop smart grid has been largely ignored
(Nordmanetal. 2012 ):smartnanogrids,thesmallest ofmicrogrids, areuniquelypositioned
to enable leapfrogging over much of the electricity system that has dominated
twentieth-century development, because they can supply local needs “at a lower cost
and reduced energy use” (Chen 2012b p. 26). Although initial implementation may seem
expensive, that expense needs to be contextualized. Diesel and kerosene, upon which
people often rely when they have no access to electricity, are expensive in terms of both
direct and indirect costs, such as their contributions to air and water pollution and health
impacts (Tweed 2013 ) . In these situations, electricity can enable local residents to use
locally available resources to dramatically boost their standard of living and quality of life.
Finally, small-scale initiatives highlight the flexibility of smart grid development,
suggesting the possibility of multiple smart grids that are purpose-designed and tailored
to the user, both at the level of individual technologies and at the system level. Many of
the individual technologies used when deploying smart grids can be configured differently
depending on the needs of the user. For example, participants in Bornholm's EcoGrid
may decide to have their home heating automatically curtailed if the system needs help in
balancing overall frequency, but that decision comes with all sorts of conditions and there
is no requirement that all residents make the same decision. There is room for variation
in how long the curtailment may last, how much temperature variation is allowed, and
other customer-specific adaptations. Participants in the Pecan Street Project might decide
that, although they are willing to adjust the time of day at which their dishwasher runs,
they are not willing to curtail air conditioning on hot summer days. And participants in
both projects can use their household equipment to learn where they are using the most