Opportunities for intelligent devices – SPGTC 2011
May 12, 2011, Smart Power Grid Technology Conference, Santa Clara, CA—Edward Cazalet, CEO of TeMix talked about the need to support and create infrastructure with emphasis on renewable energy in light of increased variability in demand. He suggested a new set of standards and protocols for energy transactions to address these new needs.
Cazalet is also the CEO of The Cazalet Group, a consulting firm working with power industry organizations, and the vice president of Megawatt Storage Farms, and energy storage startup company. He noted the need for a smart grid using standards based on eMix for transactions and also suggested that this new infrastructure must also include energy storage capabilities to help balance loads and reduce energy peaks. If large numbers of consumers convert their cars to electric vehicles, this change could drive the use to overnight hours when many of the renewable energy sources like solar are not available.
Consumers need to increase their involvement and change their relationship with energy companies, something that can happen through increased transparency. The smart grid is a combination of physical, operational, and universal micro sensors coordinating interactions across the entire enterprise. In this scenario, electricity will flow in response to pricing information.
Everything will have an IP address and increased levels of automation will provide user benefits with minimal changes in prices for appliances. Interactions will occur across the full system which will need some type of server or central coordination function to operate. TeMix can provide a clearinghouse for markets and tariffs where any party can buy or sell to any other. These transactions at the wholesale level would be across the grid at utilities and also down to the retail or user level. Financial market technology can be applied to the energy markets.
TeMix is based on standard Internet protocols for transmission and on the FIX (financial information exchange) protocol, for any transactions, the clearinghouse would post prices for delivery and provide a control system for tenders and transactions for energy import and export across the grid. Consumers can buy subscriptions to blocks of power or options on blocks of power, contracting for power delivery at a fixed price over some period of time. The aggregate of these subscriptions could help the utilities balance loads as these forward and real-time transactions indicate changes in consumption due to pricing and availability.
The standards for information models and protocols are moving through an approval process hosted by NIST and will include features for Web connectivity, security, and other standards as deemed necessary. The proposed standards will enable transactions over various time intervals stretching from years to minutes and will extend to enable individual device control interoperability. Controllers could take inputs including pricing, weather, and operating conditions and optimize electrical equipment operations through controllers, meters, and inputs from the system.
