Synopsis: As the experience of Australia's #VPP providers proliferates in the US, it turns out that Australia also offers us a playbook on how to prepare, manage, and strengthen our front lines for #DER and #EV integration, i.e., what to do to assess, learn, improve and lengthen the lifespan and readiness of the low-voltage distribution grid, which is the lifeline for scaling bidirectional and unidirectional small #DERs and #EV infrastructure. This article delves into the idea that we need to highlight and separate out grid preparedness and modernization objectives for the thousands[?!] of low-voltage grids (LV Grids) in the US. We need give LV Grids their own taxonomy, discuss the enhancements that are available these specific grids for the inevitable and massive consumer-driven electrification Coming to a Feeder Near You. To support that, we coin the term #LVGETs to describe the hardware and software solutions available now, and needed soon, around the country. Enjoy and help us socialize #distributiongridtransformation in a neighboorhood near you!
On a recent podcast with the DER Task Force, I discussed creative #DER and #microgrid regulation and valuation strategies: my vision that we can, as a network of experts and #DERpilled folk, design the affirmative playbook to scale #virtualpowerplant (VPP) and #distributed device power networks everywhere in the US, irrespective of market design and poles-and-wires regulated structure. I also socialized some market design principles that first took shape in the #VPP #DER pilot in the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), many of which are the template for rollout of the #aggregated #DER #VPP approach taken in ERCOT for the #ADER pilot project - DERs contributing to price formation, integrated with the market's least-cost 5-min dispatch engine, visibility of released capacity to the grid operator, net injection device-level telemetry, and compensation for procured grid services.
Since that discussion of a playbook for #VPP everywhere, it has occurred to me that we need an affirmative guideline for poles-and-wires companies with the same refinements, very very soon, for assessing, learning, improving, and lengthening the lifespan and readiness of the low - voltage distribution grid (LV Grid). The U.S. distribution grid is highly balkanized in terms of geographic and electrical separation, regulatory structures, and technical competencies of the entities operating those systems: "[c]ontrolling all elements of a power grid transitioning to a modern interconnected system can be simple or complicated depending on the sophistication of the system doing the managing." [T&D World, April 12, 2024]. However, all of them operate on the same essentials of physics, and they bear the brunt of a world where a massive penetration of #DERs and #EVs wins the day. It is impossible to argue against the physics of the scenario: if we scale #DER technology adoption, we must simultaneously scale the physical viability of the last mile of electric grid infrastructure that is essential to its adoption - the LV Grid.
My thoughts on the matter are not a random epiphany. Indeed, if Australia has zoomed forward ahead of the rest on #VPP integration and scaling, their electricity market stakeholders have also been working hard for years now, on solving for the LV Grid problem statement as well. Noting (and panicking a little bit, personally)[1] that we are heavily focused in policy discussions in the U.S. on transmission high-voltage and medium-voltage grid constraints, it feels a bit like a public service to point out that we need similar attention ASAP on the U.S. LV Grid.
If you've tracking the various forums in which our "big grid" issues are being discussed, you know that also being discussed are the technology solutions which posit to troubleshoot the situation, known as "grid enhancing technologies" or #GETs. There are different glossary definitions of "GETs" in the space for sure - but largely, when people think #GETs, they think enhancements for high-voltage and medium-voltage systems. This taxonomy in the thinking about GETs has been reinforced by the recent media attention given to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issuance of ~ $8.4 million in funding last year to four R&D partner entities that will "perform research, development, and demonstrations that enable broad adoption of next generation GETs tools and systems throughout the energy sector." [Announcement link: states involved - #Georgia #Nevada #Idaho #Connecticut]. For this purpose, DOE defines GETs as tools and solutions which “maximize the electricity transmission across the existing system” (emphasis added) and notes that these technologies include:
- Dynamic line rating systems
- Power-flow control systems and smart meters
- Advanced energy management systems (EMS)
Nice. Well, now people recognize and are talking about #GETs. The next level education needed then, is what a quick check across the #transmission and #distribution infrastructure vocabulary in electric engineering and policy discussions will show: GETs can be "found at all levels of the grid, from the transmission system to the distribution network and beyond." [T&D World, April 2024 - Reimagining The Future Grid]. "Some [GETs] are designed for specific utility customer types (i.e., industrial, commercial, and residential applications) while others are suitable for grid-scale operations." [Id.]
GETs can be deployed across all of the grid, and are essentially comprised of software and hardware solutions, including sensor technologies backed by sophisticated software cloud systems and AI-powered computing to support real-time data gathering and analytics. In Australia, a national government entity - ARENA, has been a major convenor of state, local, regional, and national entities on the topics of advancing LV Grid readiness. In the US, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has a significant and incredibly recent and voluminous set of foundational documents (folks over there are working really hard, thank you)capturing the essence of what needs to happen to make LV Grids - the distribution system front lines for #EVs and #DERs - ready for what is coming. The website section, called Distribution Grid Transformation, is broken down into three areas: operational, planning, and design concepts, with foundational documents written, and many in queue for issuance in 2024. (There is so much content, I got tired of capturing screenshots of everything - and hope I did enough below to explain the significance of the corpus):
Well, okay. That is a lot of stuff. It turns out, electricity as a system has always been a lot of stuff - nothing has changed and it really will not, because our grid is many, many grids. The value of the Australian experience however, is that because there are not as many distribution grids in total due to a more nationalized approach to network management by "DNSPs", it is a very-well defined, structured, and manageable data set of DER-integration experiences that many different distribution utilities can look to in the US as a control to study and ready their own systems. That includes how Australian DNSPs have already used #LVGETs to get ahead. (I'm sorry, what a horrible pun.)
DNSP stands for "Distribution Network Service Provider" and here's one published representation of the list:
A more official version from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) search filters shows the list with some interesting crosses on which entities also operate transmission; the idea is same: a pretty well-defined, fixed set of LV Grid operators:
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There are lot more distribution system LV Grids in the US. There are over 3,300 electric utilities (see National Conference of State Legislatures reports for more detail) alone in the U.S., comprising themselves of different regulatory models as between investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities, electric cooperatives (and federal power agencies), each category of which typically will operate its own LV Grid.
When the front lines are so many, and the eyes watching over them equally many, the mission can at least be defined by a common set of objectives and motivations. From the initial thinking and translative work I've done in my career in this space, I understand the primary drivers of #LVGETs to be:
1. Understand, build transparency and share data effectively for the safe, informed, and intelligent integration of more distributed energy resources (DER) hosting capacity on low voltage power lines.
2. Regulate voltage on low voltage power lines by dynamically providing or absorbing reactive power, benefiting new and existing DER customers where the device is installed.
3. Maintain voltage within normal operating bands to better utilize DERs without expensive grid upgrades.
4. Facilitate the connection of more home solar systems and batteries and create more distribution system value for siting and locating these technologies on feeders and LV networks which need the help.
5. Avoid and defer expensive network augmentation works to support increased demand from customers adopting storage backup power solutions, home solar, and #EVs. (There is enough consumer-cost expense coming with data centers and the like on the HV and MV systems - let us figure out quickly how to save money on the low side).
6. Increase network visibility to support network operation and planning by providing valuable LV data, contributing to improved assessment of #hostingcapacity (and in the future in most places in the US, dynamic, localized system operating envelopes).
7. Integrate DER data streams into the network's digital infrastructure, enhancing distribution utilities' capabilities to become dynamic, sophisticated LV Grid network operators.
8. Improve customer and regulator understanding of DER participation benefits and enhance customer and regulator engagement through transparent processes for managing DER data and services.
I will be appreciating and enjoying some fun engagement this week at #NARUCSummer24 with the NARUC crowd, many of whom have been thinking about what is coming, for quite some time - particularly how we get to distribution-level markets and what that will mean for how we can amortize the costs of existing distribution infrastructure and defer upgrades over longer periods with #LVGETs and improve granular visibility and understanding of the current systems' limitations and opportunities.
Without knowing what we do not know, in essence, it is quite hard to do what needs to be done. And without knowing, how do we know what LV grid maintenance, monitoring, and modernization will cost, and what the opportunity cost of not doing these things will be? That is where #LVGETs investments will save the day and prepare us for the next one. #LVGETs means data, visibility, confidence, transparency, accuracy, a reason to say yes, and a reason to say no, informed decisionmaking, and just and reasonable rates.
And right on queue, I hope I can also expect a raucous debate at #narucsummer24 on whether we need #GETs in the #DER space or #transmission more -- I am appreciating the title of this upcoming segment "Grid Hardening or DERs? How to Pick Your Resilience Entree" (found here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/georgebjelovuk_summer-summit-2024-activity-7217547399009873920-s1_V?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop).
(Spoiler alert) I really think it is #LVGETs first: because getting the bulk electric system, the #transmissiongrid prepared for large load-driven electrification is so heavily constrained on so many variables, and so cost-intensive, we are going to see more consumers in all rate classes invest in avoiding transmission cost and transmission dependence: it means MORE #DERs, #microgrids, #batteries, #generators, #LVGrid loads. Not less.
Some major reading and research on the topic has gone into this post, thanks to my intern Muhammad Luqman Haider for supporting that. We'll aspire to get our full reading list in here in the next few days. For now, let's "get" the word out on #LVGETs.
References of interest:
- Evolution of the Distribution System & the Potential for Distribution-level Markets: A Primer for State Utility Regulators, Sharon Thomas, NARUC Research Lab, 2018, available at https://pubs.naruc.org/pub/C0B3BA7C-0CBB-CB2A-E2B1-00A3756340BA
- Utilising technology to increase distributed energy in low voltage networks https://arena.gov.au/news/utilising-technology-to-increase-distributed-energy-in-low-voltage-networks/
- Edge Zero Announces US Distribution Agreement with Parsons Corporation https://www.utilitydive.com/press-release/20240221-edge-zero-announces-us-distribution-agreement-with-parsons-corporation/
- Electricity Markets: A Primer for State Legislators https://www.ncsl.org/energy/electricity-markets-a-primer-for-state-legislators
- Low voltage network visibility and optimising DER hosting capacity (December 2021) https://racefor2030.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/N2-OA-Project-FINAL-Report-2021.pdf
[1] Transmission (High and Medium Voltage) Grid Constraints, well-discussed in a podcast episode feat. Julia Selker with david roberts, noting: "One of the primary threats to the clean energy buildout spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act is a lack of transmission. Models show that hitting our Paris climate targets would involve building two to three times our current transmission capacity, yet new lines are desperately slow to come online. Meanwhile, existing lines are congested and hundreds of gigawatts of new clean energy sits waiting in interconnection queues." Transcript at: https://www.volts.wtf/p/getting-more-out-of-the-grid-weve
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