POWER May 2016 - 30

DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES
5. First of many. The Québec-New England Phase II HVDC project, awarded by Hydro
Québec and National Grid USA to ABB in 1986, was the first large multi-terminal high-voltage
direct current (HVDC) system to be contracted. Since then, dozens more have been developed.
Courtesy: ABB
Generation or Transmission: Who's
on First?
Depending on the type and size of generation
capacity you're talking about and where it's
sited, it may make sense to build transmission
first. In reality, generation often takes
the lead. That's true for more than just rooftop
PV systems.
During the QER public stakeholder
meeting, North American Electric Reliability
Corp. (NERC) President and CEO Gerry
Cauley pointed out that you can build generation
much faster than transmission. The latter
can take 10 to 15 years. In the meantime,
even utility-scale plants of any kind can be
added to the grid, putting more pressure on
existing transmission.
Jay Morrison, vice president, regulatory
Edison International's Vision of the Utility of the
Future
At IHS CERAWeek in February, Theodore
(Ted) Craver, chairman, president, and CEO
of Edison International, said his company
wants to emphasize the delivery system.
Because Edison International (a public
utility holding company) buys most of
its generation, " we're indifferent as to
whether it's utility scale or distributed
generation (DG) or storage, " he said.
All of those resources require the distribution
system to operate, and " that system
needs to be modernized " to connect distribution
and communication parts and make
it all more efficient. Craver said Edison sees
as much opportunity as threat in DG.
He also noted that we are moving to
an even more electrified system, so the
distribution grid becomes even more important.
Electricity systems, he said, have
traditionally been built for a peak, and
when you have unused capacity, you could
have electric vehicles charging and then
operate those grid-connected batteries as
an aggregated mobile storage system.
special charges for customers with rooftop
solar generation.
Utilities, technology providers, customers,
and regulators have sometimes competing in30
In
terms of who pays for distribution grid
upgrades, Craver said, it depends on how
quickly you do things. If you modernize in
" steps over time, " you focus on the circuits
with the most DG first. Prioritizing upgrades
can lower costs and even avoid costs for
new generation and grid resources.
He explained that the electric system
was standardized to deliver reliability
and low cost, but now some customers-especially
commercial and industrial
customers-want or need " highly
customized electricity service " either
for power quality needs or because they
want renewables. How to provide that
customization " will be a challenge. "
On March 29, Edison International gave
a more detailed preview of what its future
might hold when it announced the launch
of Edison Energy, a new business unit that
will provide energy consulting services to
large energy consumers across the country.
(For more, see " Edison Moves Toward
Energy as a Service " at powermag.com.)
terests in this new distributed energy arena.
As technology options and costs continue
to change, so too will the moves each stakeholder
group is able to make.
www.powermag.com
issues for the National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association, noted that the Clean
Power Plan makes the assumption that new
transmission will be built to move new, clean
power from wind farms to load centers, but
even if states want to add new transmission,
can it realistically be built as fast as it will be
needed, he asked. NERC's Cauley pointed to
Texas, which had to strategically coordinate
new wind generation and new transmission-
and things worked out reasonably well.
Aside from the permitting and regulatory
challenges facing new transmission, American
Public Power Association President and
CEO Sue Kelly offered another caveat. Be
careful that you build new transmission that
works under " a bunch of different planning
scenarios, " she advised. Right now, she said,
" there's a rush to build transmission because
it's a regulated business " that will generate
revenue for a long time.
From Grid to Grids
When folks talk about the power grid, they
usually mean a combination of the transmission
and distribution (T&D) systems, even
though these are two separate systems under
different regulatory regimes. Now microgrids
are beginning to be seen as a third grid that is
different not just in scale and control but also
function and financing. The relative importance
of the " T, " " D, " and " M " grids depends
on regional variables, including generation
siting options and load growth.
Increasingly, T&D grids are being forced
into more complex and challenging service.
The DOE notes in the QER briefing memo
that transmission lines " can more easily accommodate
two-way flows of electricity than
the distribution network. " However, it's at the
distribution grid where an increasing number
of unplanned-for DERs are being added.
The DOE also notes that " The electricity
system across continental North America
is already connected and highly integrated
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POWER May 2016

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