Microgrids and megatrends: Creating a 21st century-ready grid
Credit to Author: Aamir Paul| Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 19:01:39 +0000
In the summer of 1977, New York City was brought to a standstill by a power outage. This year, history repeated itself: Two more major outages due to aging electrical grid components. But the issue isn’t limited to New York. In the Bay Area, the world’s cradle of technological innovation, Pacific Gas & Electric has begun load shedding to reduce wildfire risk from an electricity grid in need of modernization and repair.
Megatrends are changing the energy landscape, and megacities like New York and San Francisco are on the front lines. Climate change, urbanization, and digitization are challenging cities and industries to find ways to deliver reliable and sustainable electricity — all while overcoming rising power consumption, aging infrastructure, and the daily complexities of supporting millions of people.
Consider what’s changed, and what hasn’t, since 1977, the year I was born. Telecommunications technology is nearly unrecognizable and, more broadly, information technology has experienced breakthroughs in every field. But electrical infrastructure? Even Thomas Edison would recognize it.
Now’s the time to work together to transform the way we produce, transmit, and consume electricity. While there are a few magical, pie-in-the-sky answers, I want to share two pragmatic ways we can start.
Two approaches: Smart grid solutions and microgrids
The first step: Harness IoT connectivity to monitor critical infrastructure assets like the smart grid.
To do this, we can consider the spiritual insight, “everything is connected,” as a strategic objective. The smart grid is already home to billions of smart devices. But just because we’ve deployed these devices doesn’t mean we’re getting the most out of them.
Meters, relays, and sensors need to be connected to sophisticated analytics and management tools. With these tools, you can do more than pinpoint outages. You can automate fault detection, streamline proactive maintenance, and thus enhance performance and reliability. The video below shows how smart grid solutions bolster resilience during extreme weather.
The second step is to promote decentralized alternatives such as microgrid technology. Microgrids work seamlessly alongside the grid to provide redundant power to critical infrastructures like hospitals and data centers. They also encourage renewable energy integration. With the rise of energy-as-a-service financing models, more organizations are embracing microgrids because of lower upfront costs. Fortunately, strategies exist for businesses and organizations to handle this shift toward two-way power flows.
I’ve seen the success of microgrid technology at critical sites around the world. For example, the city of Fairfield, Connecticut, took a proactive approach to energy resiliency after experiencing catastrophic power outages during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. With the installation of two microgrids, Fairfield’s police and fire stations, emergency communications center, and other critical services are protected, powered, and running, even in the event of a future natural disaster or outage.
Building new infrastructure and improving on current systems is challenging, especially when utilities are expected to make these changes without downtime and amidst an ever-increasing demand for energy. Utilizing IoT and decentralized power minimizes these hurdles.
Envisioning the future of energy in New York City
Despite this summer’s outages, New York is leading the charge toward IoT connectivity, microgrids, and modernized infrastructure.
Seven miles down the road from the most recent major outage, John F. Kennedy Airport is on track to transition to 100 percent renewable energy, with help from AlphaStruxure, our new partnership with the Carlyle Group. Our Chief Innovation Officer, Emmanuel Lagarrigue, discusses the JFK project in this video.
Future-readiness is the main objective of the project. To ensure clean, resilient, and reliable power for Terminal One, the airport will install multiple microgrids with on-site solar generation. An IoT-connected system will harness both utility power and the on-site distributed power using advanced software controls and electrical distribution hardware. With these systems in place, New Yorkers and travelers alike will benefit from greater reliability and resiliency.
Building a grid fit for our children’s children
We at Schneider orient our business around future generations. It’s part of our commitment to go carbon neutral across our extended enterprise by 2030. It’s baked into the way we’re transforming energy generation, transmission, and consumption. And it’s a part of our goal of creating a resilient, 21st century-ready grid.
For a deeper dive into our strategies for digitizing, decarbonizing, and decentralizing the grid, download The Digital Grid: Unleashed.
I also invite you to take a seat at the table as we continue this conversation. How are you addressing the challenges of improving infrastructure? What technologies are you eager to explore? Share your experience, hurdles, and hopes in a comment below.
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