Distributed Generation --- Present and Past -- Evolution
Dollars & Cents …… Megawatts & Kilowatts
If you need a dollar, it can come as one bill or one hundred pennies…. It all spends the same. In a similar vein, electricity is much the same….
If the Grid suddenly needs 100 megawatts of power, especially during extreme weather conditions of severe hot and cold, that power can come from one big “peaker plant,” located many miles away from where the demand is – or – it can come from 100 small generators, each producing 1 megawatt and located at critical nodes and feeders throughout the utility’s infrastructure… that is called “distributed generation” vs. centralized power.
The best case is having both sources – a Grid made more resilient by having many smaller sources of dispatchable power that can buttress the distribution network… while providing many other benefits, such as low-cost spinning reserves and black-start-capabilities.
H2PWR Systems are exceptionally well-suited to this scenario, because they can “ramp up” extremely quickly – thanks to its hybrid design and sophisticated proprietary controls. (At last year’s Superlab 2.0 Grid simulation at a DOE laboratory, the H2PWR System demonstrated the capacity to ramp-up from 6 megawatts to 30 megawatts in under 10 seconds.)
The H2PWR Systems can bring other benefits to the Grid, such as low-cost spinning reserves – an attribute that is very important for distribution utilities that are dealing with increasing volumes of non-dispatchable assets, such as PV solar. Again, these benefits can be realized through deploying large numbers of small, dispatchable H2PWR Systems to buttress the Grid – and stabilize it in the future’s stressful times.
A dollar is a dollar – whether it is a single crisp bill or one hundred shiny pennies. Same applies to electrons… they can come from one big bucket or from many strategically placed locations… called “points of common coupling.” Let’s take this metaphor of coins and electrons one step farther:
Now, imagine each coin depicted here represents one megawatt of power…. Some of the stacks have three megawatts, some five, and so on…. They are networked, in effect “harnessed” together… capable of producing dispatchable power where and as it is needed, as circumstances and demand changes.
This power-producing scenario could exist as an overlay in today’s distribution Grid… and if operating in a coordinated means, this deployment could be integrated into what today is called a “virtual power plant.”
Next, let’s evaluate the placement of that distributed generation (DG) strategically in a given geographic location. This is the leading edge of what we consider “Locational Benefits” - making a strategic decision as to where to optimally place the H2PWR Systems (in the utility-side application). Again, installation at critical nodes and strategically important feeders can provide the Grid with additional benefits, such as black-start capabilities, protection from transients and low-cost spinning reserves. (Note: those stacks of coins can represent different levels of power capacity, placed at a variety of locations that H2PWR Systems can be deployed: either within a utility distribution network – or - within a military base, municipality, private campus, or industrial park.)
(For more information about a novel business model that blends the utility and local generation models, please click here for the “Community Microgrid.”)
Back to the Future Part One
How did Distributed Generation get its start? (Hint: There was Distributed Generation long before there was a National Grid)
Electricity has NOT always been widely available thanks to huge (and distant) power plants and thousands of miles of transmission lines criss-crossing the land. Widely distributed electricity began very humbly – with few exceptions, by one source of generation at a time…
Shown: An early steam-powered generator. This entire apparatus was mounted on wheels (as shown) and could be towed to where it was needed (initially by horses).
Distributed Generation (DG) – simply put – is electric power generated locally – close to where it is used.
It all began with the wide-spread introduction of the durable and portable steam generator in the 1840s and then became a reality when inventors, such as Werner von Siemens, created the early generator (or dynamo) largely during the 1860s. Sometime in the 1870s, the steam engine and the generator were married together – and electricity became available, locally.
There were a very few “centralized plants” – located in affluent communities/districts – getting their start in the 1880s. They were powered by “dynamos” and produced DC power, which was used for early electric light bulbs. Designed by Thomas Edison, in a short-time the DC power-plant model was overcome by AC power. These early DC power plants and small service territories were in essence early microgrids.
Shown is a “dynamo” from around 1900
Power was largely generated where it was needed by the portable steam- powered devices – especially for certain industries and farms… even sporting events. (There is an early report of a football match being illuminated in the late 1870s by a steam-powered generator in Sheffield, England.)
Back to the Future Part Two
When Communities were Powered by Diverse Sources of Distributed Generation
By the 1890s, towns were building municipal power plants – often to power new trolley systems. Where river-power was available, dams were built and hydro-power was introduced around the same time. For example, in what was then rural Washington County Maryland, the local utility (Potomac Edison) began to create what today could be called a “virtual power plant” – by integrating several otherwise independent power generating sources (both municipal and hydro turbines) into network, providing “abundant and reliable” electricity from “21 sources in the County.” (out of many, one) There is nothing new about distributed generation…. This ad was from 1956….
Electricity Personified: Reddy Kilowatt® makes the scene...
In the 1920s, electricity was a new luxury item for many. It would still be a decade or so before the TVA and the Rural Electrification Act would even begin to bring electricity to huge areas outside of urbanized areas. So, utilities began to seek ways to personify the benefits of electricity to pave the way for early acceptance and adoption.
One way was to personify power – and so “Reddy Kilowatt” was born at the time of the Depression (1920s-1930s). He became known as “The Servant of the People” and ads and promotional items boomed in the mid-1950s…. match-book covers (shown), ashtrays, playing cards, you-name-it. By the 1940s and 1950s, distributed generation (DG) was being swiftly consolidated into the system we now know simply as “the Grid.”
That was then – This is NOW
But the Grid itself has evolved dramatically in size and complexity since the 1950’s; it grew to depend upon massive centralized plants and having power moved about regionally in complex networks (called Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators), which must approve new generation sources being added to (or removed from) the Grid.
The demand for electricity (and hence, new generation) has grown relentlessly in recent years; at the same time, the nation’s Grid infrastructure has aged (revealing vulnerabilities) since the mid-20th century. New technologies are being integrated into and grafted onto the old Grid… and the strain is showing. A vast array of new generation technologies (notably PV solar) have been added behind-the-meter that are “non-dispatchable,” causing heart-burn for utility operators. AI centers are being proposed, requiring gigawatts of power.
New sources of dispatchable and baseload DG are urgently needed – and must fit into the regulatory environment of each state and utility. We at RPW are designing the H2PWR System to meet the emerging and pressing needs of the nation’s utility infrastructure.
The H2PWR System can be deployed in short periods of time – compared to large plants (such as nuclear). Our systems may not be the solution to the Grid’s dilemma, but they can make a material difference in a widely distributed network, installed and commissioned in a variety of installations.
