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By Doug Bartholomew
Aside from turning down the setting on the hot water heater, or hanging the laundry on the line to dry outside, there's not a whole lot consumers can do to stem the consumption of electric power or gas in the home. But that's likely to change when appliances are built or retrofitted with smart devices.
"We call this the "Grid-Friendly Appliance," says Don Hammerstrom, project manager for the Pacific Northwest GridWise Demonstration Project managed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. PNNL installed its Grid Friendly Appliance Controller chip in appliances such as electric dryers and water heaters in 200 homes.
Some homes received real-time price information through a broadband Internet connection, as well as automated equipment that adjusted their energy use based on price. Some customers also had computer chips embedded in their dryers and water heaters that sensed when the power transmission system was approaching overload and automatically shut down certain functions on these appliances until power operators could stabilize the grid. This could include having the dryers shut down their heating elements but continue to tumble, and enabling hot water heaters to recognize that a load event is occurring on the grid and turn off their load.
In the pilot test, which was conducted from March 2006 to March 2007, "virtually no one said they noticed anything different about their appliances," Hammerstrom says. "If these changes (installing smart devices in appliances) are made at the appliance manufacturing level, you can get a very cost-effective response." In a second and larger study, the Olympic Peninsula Project, utility customers were given a financial incentive to trade reduced usage for lower costs when there was a power shortage. The project not only reduced the peak load on the grid by 15 percent over the year, it also enabled customers to save 10 percent on their energy bills.
PNNL is focusing on boosting awareness of its latest creation, the Smart Charger Controller to manage electric vehicle recharging. As North America shifts to electric vehicles, the anticipated load on the power grid of tens of millions of EVs drawing 110 volts or even 220 volts could be substantial. "These smart devices determine when to start and terminate the charging," says PNNL engineer Michael Kintner-Meyer. "If a million owners plug in their vehicles to recharge after work, it could cause a major strain on the grid, but the Smart Charger Controller could prevent those peaks in demand and enable our existing grid to be used more evenly."
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