Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
power losses for 55 million people in the United States and Canada. The interconnectivity
and interdependence of electricity systems means that minor oversights in one location can
result in a much larger problem.
Figure 3.3 The legacy electricity system is designed to connect large-scale generation
plants to load centers and is generally conceptualized in a linear model. Smart grid,
distributed generation, and storage technology provide new challenges and opportunities
for the system and challenge the conventional linear model. Source: Greentech Media
2013
Many electric utilities still rely on customer telephone calls to alert them to power
failures. Most current electricity systems lack sensors and other technologies throughout
the system that could allow system operators (as well as regulators, municipalities, or
consumers) to understand how much electricity is flowing in different places in the system,
or whether and where there may be disruptions. Improved sensors could alert a utility if a
power failure occurred and enable them to better manage system recovery.
Another limitation of most current electricity systems relates to electricity pricing and
theincentivesthatitcreates;inmostplacesintheUnitedStates,customerspayaflatcharge
per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity used, and the same price is charged whether the
customer uses the electricity during a peak-demand time of day or in the middle of the
night during a low demand time. This flat pricing fails to provide electricity users with
incentives to reduce their electricity use during peak demand times. Many electricity users
are unaware of the variations in demand throughout the day and are also unaware of the
higher costs of generating electricity during peak demand times. Technologies informing
customers about electricity use, along with a change in the price structure based on the
time of day (time-of-day pricing), could help to align customer behavior to facilitate shifts
in electricity use practices that could reduce the peak-load demand. Reductions in peak
demand have large potential for lowering overall electricity system costs because if the
maximum generating capacity is reduced, fewer power plants need to be maintained and
kept online.
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