Jun 23, 2022 23:00:00

Why is the supply and demand of electricity so tight that rolling blackouts must be done in the summer?

On June 7, 2022, the Government of Japan

announced a request to save electricity in preparation for the tight supply and demand of electricity in the summer. It is not only in Japan but also in the United States that power shortages occur in the summer and rolling blackouts occur in the same way. Mr. Winona Rajamohan, who serves, explains.

What summer power outages tell us about grid modernization · Smartcar blog
https://smartcar.com/blog/what-increasing-power-outages-tell-us-about-grid-modernization/

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has released a report on the power grid in the summer of 2022. According to Rajamohan, the following three points should be noted in the report.

1: Mid-Continent ISO (MISO), a wide-area grid operator, announced that its power generation capacity will be 2.3% less than in the summer of 2021.
To meet peak summer demand, MISO needs to rely on some resources to shift its energy load and not overwhelm the available capacity. These resources include demand reaction programs, EV charge management, and distributed energy resources (DERs) behind the meter (behind the electricity meter).

2: Drought increases the risk of extreme peak electricity demand due to high temperature and dryness
Dry conditions are detrimental to the energy output from hydro and thermoelectric generators in the western United States, forcing utilities to rely on fossil fuels to meet their growing demand for electricity. Drought wildfires in California have forced utilities to carry out rolling blackouts in areas of high fire risk, taking into account the safety of local residents.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG & E) has told California regulators that aging equipment may have caused the second-largest wildfire in the state's history. ..

3: Supply chain issues are affecting transmission expansion projects
Supply chain problems are worsening in 2022, and power companies are no exception. The parts needed to form the power grid are not available, shipping itself is delayed in the first place, and labor shortages are also detrimental to the reliability of the summer power grid. For example, according to a purchaser at Denison Municipal Utilities in Iowa, parts ordered from the American Public Power Association in early 2021 are delayed enough to arrive only nine months after the order is placed. is.

Based on the above three points, Mr. Rajamohan said, 'It means that modernization of the power grid is a top priority.' Part of the American power grid is more than 100 years old, and 70% of power transmission and distribution lines have already reached the end of their lifespan. As a result, some experts have said that it is necessary to break away from the outdated energy supply system.

Rajamohan builds a hardware-independent grid for modern power grids to 'use cleaner and renewable energy resources' and 'to balance supply and demand across resources.' By doing so, it is necessary to improve the reliability of the entire system. '

In addition, power companies are working to replace old systems in the grid with new ones, and according to a survey by the

Smart Electric Power Alliance , 77% of public works projects are implementing DERs. An example of these DERs is the microgrid (small-scale power grid), which uses solar panels on the roof of a public housing complex, batteries that store solar energy, and natural gas generators as energy sources. In addition, because it is equipped with a battery, it can supply energy even in the event of a power outage.

Rajamohan says there are some things that companies can do as well as power companies. Rajamohan cites the existence of 'APIs' and 'electric vehicles' as what companies are doing to mitigate the impact on the grid. APIs allow two or more software applications to communicate with each other, allowing them to form communication paths with IoT devices that place a heavy load on the grid, such as electric vehicles. This will enable demand response programs to provide detailed, high-quality data directly from each vehicle, which can be used to analyze load forecast patterns and create a digitized user experience for customers. It is possible to use electric power to reduce the load on the power grid.

Rajamohan also argues that the development of electric vehicle technology will help mitigate the impact on the grid. According to Rajamohan, the 'Smartcar-led smart charging program' can be expected to mitigate the negative impact on the grid, with more than 40% of users already participating in the program receiving electricity through the program. It has been successfully monetized, and as many as 14% say it can be monetized in the near future.

As the number of electric vehicles increases, so does the demand for electricity. However, with Smartcar's smart charging program, users can charge their own electricity while charging the electric vehicle, store the excess electricity on the battery, or sell it to the power company. It will be possible.