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Power disturbances cost US businesses between $100 and $200 billion dollars every year. Keeping the power grid reliable will mean spending around $450 billion to expand the conventional electric infrastructure of generating stations and transmission lines over the coming 20 years. That expense is amortized into the cost of the electricity you and I use in our businesses.

"The utility industry spends less on research and development than the dog food industry."
--Steve Wright, Administrator, BPA.

The projects are part of GridWise, the DOE's vision for the future of the electric grid. GridWise is based on the premise that information technology offers a cost-effective way to get more mileage out of our existing infrastructure. If the technologies developed by the GridWise Alliance work, they could defer new infrastructure, or even make it unnecessary.

Demonstrating the effectiveness of price signals
The first demonstration project is all about getting energy users more involved in decisions about when to buy electricity. Most energy users today pay for electricity at a flat rate per kilowatt hour, with no visibility into the fluctuating wholesale cost of power.

"We're all concerned about high price of energy," Murray said. "It's a drag on our economy. But consumers don't have information, or control. They don't know the real cost of energy at any given time. So it's hard for them to make smart energy choices"

The Pacific Northwest National Lab has developed a system that is programmed to respond automatically to real-time prices by reducing power consumption. Researchers will put the system into the homes of 200 volunteers on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

The goal is to learn whether customers will allow this system to adjust their thermostats when energy prices are high, or override the program for their comfort and convenience.

If the system works to reduce consumption when wholesale energy prices are high, we could see similar technologies deployed in businesses, as well. The idea is that you would set an ideal temperature for your office building or shop floor, for example, along with an acceptable range of temperatures. You would allow this system to adjust within that range based on what it costs to keep the temperature close to the ideal.

Demonstrating intelligent appliances
The second demonstration project will test whether a chip implant would make appliances smart enough to help the grid deal with stress.

"Throughout the day there are big shifts in the demand for power," Murray explained. "And that puts a huge strain on our transmission and distribution systems. When that happens we either find ways to reduce demand, or we face a power blackout."

The grid operates at a fixed frequency of 60 Hz. When there's a spike in demand -- like when we all come into the office and turn on the lights and computers -- the first sign of trouble on the grid is a change in frequency. This happens about once a day on average.

The current practice is for grid operators to bring a stand-by power plant online quickly, which is expensive and takes at least a few minutes to achieve. Researchers believe that if a small part of the demand could be delayed just for a few seconds, the grid would have a chance to rectify the situation on its own.

GridWise participating companies have developed a Grid Friendly Appliance Controller that can be built into appliances. The controller reacts in a split second to fluctuations in the grid's frequency, and shuts off the most energy-intensive components of the appliance for a few minutes.

About 150 homes in Yakima, Washington, and Gresham, Oregon, will get experimental Sears Kenmore clothes dryers equipped with Grid Friendly Controllers. The clothes dryer's heating element can be turned off, while the drum continues to turn.

This technology could eventually find its way into commercial water heaters, freezers, and the banks of dryers used in hotels and hospitals. When the effect is multiplied on a large scale, the instant reduction in energy load could act as a shock absorber for the grid.

Funding for research considered a sound investment
These year-long studies are funded primarily by the DOE. Senator Murray hopes the projects will help to create a smart energy industry in Washington. She is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee; in the last two years she has secured some $3 million in federal funding for projects that bring energy technologies out of the lab and into the field.

Bonneville Power Administration is the federal agency that operates about three fourths of the electric infrastructure in the Northwest. Steve Wright, the agency's Administrator, said population growth in the Northwest is already requiring construction of more power lines. Wright hopes Bonneville's participation will postpone the need for some construction. He made this observation about the cost of research:

"The utility industry spends less on research and development than the dog food industry," Wright said. "That's amazing considering the opportunities that technology gives us to provide better service to consumers."

A study by the DOE shows that creating a smarter grid -- through research into information technologies like these -- could save $80 billion or more over 20 years by offsetting the costs of building new electric infrastructure. That's without taking into account the cost of having the lights go out.

Related articles:
"Project turns on technology to save energy" (Seattle Times)
"Oregon residents test Gridwise technology" (Power Engineering Magazine)