|
CenterPoint,
IBM working
on big smart grid BPL test
'Smart grid' helps open
markets work
The following story is a condensed version of
a lead story in BPL Today.
Would you like the full version? Just call or email Theresa Varuolo
at 1-800-486-8201 tvaruolo@ghinews.com
and ask for it. She'll rush you a copy of the complete version.
The Houston IOU revealed its plans to rollout a 12-month
trial project putting BPL-enabled smart grid applications on a much
wider scale than before.
How
wide?
Three
Houston neighborhoods in CenterPoint's Houston Electric footprint
are included. It's an area covering 44,500 electric and 22,500 gas
customers with multi- and single-family homes plus commercial customers.
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Broadband
for customers is not part of the project, the utility stressed.
IBM
will manage the project -- continuing a BPL relationship that started
last year with CenterPoint’s latest BPL technology trial --
hooking up that time internet and advanced meters to about 250 homes
in Houston.
That
project and CenterPoint’s Houston BPL demonstration center
were created by IBM with BPL integrator IdaComm.
IBM
has been helping utilities run more efficiently for many years.
Big
Blue had revealed a long wish list of BPL-enabled utility applications
in Dallas at a presentation to the UPLC. Some of those will no doubt
get hooked up to the new project.
CenterPoint’s
latest trial tested home broadband applications such as VOIP and
internet and included AMR.
The
new trial is now in the design phase and will include AMR for power
and gas customers plus “smart grid” monitoring and automation
to be finished by November.
Add
to that remote connect and disconnect and automated outage detection
and restoration.
The
decision not to include broadband for customers is part of CenterPoint’s
“disciplined” approach to analyzing BPL, said Don Cortez.
He's
vice president of distribution support at CenterPoint.
“The
challenge and the opportunities just in the utility space are tremendous,”
he explained, and adding broadband would have been too complicated,
he told us.
He
recognizes opportunities in the retail space for broadband but "later
on down the road we’re going to look for companies or people
who have expertise and experience on that side,” he predicted.
Texas’
BPL law keeps utilities out of the broadband business and Cortez
urged other states to follow suit.
CenterPoint
is using Corinex BPL hardware -- based on DS2’s 200 mbps chipset
-- for this deployment.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Can I do [smart
grid] with other methods today? Yes, but the cost would probably
be higher than the cost for BPL. BPL has just made it a reasonable
cost.
Daniel
Cortez, CenterPoint
Originally
published in Restructuring
Today on February 14, 2006
ELCON's
Anderson, AEP's
Morris disagree on markets
Amid a panel on grid building at the National Electricity Delivery
Forum in Washington, stakeholders debated whether competition has
really gotten to wholesale markets.
ELCON's
President John Anderson is "disappointed" that competition
hasn't given customers a real choice to pick among grid projects,
generation and demand response to strengthen reliability and ease
congestion.
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• Douglas Dunn, Milbank Tweed
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What
he sees as organized markets are just a different form of regulation
-- not competition.
American
Electric Power CEO Michael Morris rebutted that view, claiming industrials
were running back towards regulation because of fuel price spikes.
They
didn't have a problem with competition when gas cost about $2/mmbtu,
Morris noted.
Customers
can't have the best of both worlds, he added.
Markets
can be chilly, Morris cautioned.
Anderson
doesn't think customers have real markets yet.
Industrials
want markets but that's not what they have, Anderson insisted.
Morris
thinks wholesale customers have true competition now.
It
all boils down to building new grid to relieve congestion and keep
reliability.
Anderson
thinks the task is impossible without knowing where the markets
are going.
If
stakeholders want to keep opening markets, then a lot of grid upgrades
are going to be needed, Anderson argued.
But
if stakeholders favor limiting markets -- or even pushing them back
-- many grid upgrades won't be needed and would be a waste of money,
he added.
Stakeholders
need to know what kind of generation is going to be built.
Where
is it going?
Are
load pockets going to disappear in some areas and appear in new
ones, he asked.
The
amount of DG and demand response that will arise will impact planning
too, said Anderson.
Without
first answering those questions, grid upgrades won't solve big problems,
Anderson claimed.
Getting
those answers isn't an easy process, he conceded. If it were, we'd
have the solution to grid planning by now.
How
would Anderson encourage grid building?
Policymakers
need to remove barriers, he replied.
One
of the biggest impediments to new grid, in his view, is locational
pricing.
It's
supposed to send a price signal that an area is congested and needs
grid. Then once the project goes on line, prices will fall.
That
makes cost recovery difficult and projects become unattractive to
investors, added Anderson
Joint
ownership of generation and transmission is hindering grid building
too, he claimed.
He
sees vertically integrated utilities ignoring grid needs to keep
prices up in areas where they own a plant.
Long-term
grid rights are key, Anderson said.
Customers
won't pay for projects without a guarantee they'll be able to use
the new capacity, he pointed out.
Anderson
favors more bilateral contracting to boost grid investment.
Long-term
contracts assure investors future revenues, Anderson noted, since
reliance on spot markets doesn't produce guarantees.
Grid
owners must remember customers when planning projects, urged Anderson.
Customers
are becoming more frustrated and will demand that grid upgrades
are useful and truly needed before paying for them, he said.
They
won't pay for upgrades where they don't have a chance to buy into
them, Anderson added.
Grid
projects need to reflect customer needs and not the wants of regulators
or grid owners.
Morris favors total federal control over grid siting.
Unclear
authority over projects is one of the top hurdles preventing more
interstate grid projects, he argued.
He
wants FERC to control all aspects of approving grid projects --
much as the commission does for natural gas pipelines.
It
makes sense to give the power exclusively to FERC, he added, since
moving electrons across state lines is a federal issue.
Giving
FERC sole authority aids cost recovery via FERC-approved prices
thus avoiding the problems of trapped costs, where PUCs in various
states may not let grid owners recover costs from ratepayers.
Of
course, states wouldn't want to give up their authority without
getting something in return.
Morris
thinks FERC should give up control over approving generation and
leave that exclusively to the states.
It's
a logical trade, in his view.
PUCs
and customers shouldn't worry about losing control over grid projects,
he said.
FERC
would do a diligent job in protecting customers, Morris assured.
Transmission
is a small part of customer bills, Morris said.
The
average AEP price for power is 6¢/kwh -- and transmission only
accounts for 0.5¢ of that total, he pointed out.
Customers
would save millions, he added, by greater and faster grid building
-- especially avoiding costly reliability must-run contracts.
FERC
control over grid projects would give firms greater clarity in getting
a rate of return, he added.
They
would only have to go before one commission, said Morris.
Originally
published in Restructuring
Today on February 16, 2006
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