The Smart Grid Research Consortium for Electric Cooperatives, Municipal and Other Public Utilities
The US electric system is in the initial stages of a “smart grid” transformation that many have compared to
development of the telephone system, the interstate highway system and the Internet. The smart grid provides
advanced communication, automation and control of the entire electric system from generating plants to the operation of electric
equipment inside homes, commercial buildings and industrial plants. Smart grid programs improve utility system
efficiency and reliability, reduce utility operating costs, enhance customer participation in energy management,
and reduce the need for new
generating plants, carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption.
However, utility investments required to implement comprehensive smart grid initiatives are substantial and many
smart grid hardware and software technologies are just now evolving with limited experience to evaluate options.
Many utilities are concerned that some smart grid investments may not pay for themselves over time or that mistakes
in making near term smart grid decisions may increase costs and limit benefits.
Determining the business case for smart grid investments is especially difficult for electric cooperatives,
municipalities, and other publicly owned utilities because of their typically smaller size, limited staff and
the greater importance of fixed costs relative to the number of their customers. However, coops and
publicly-owned electric utilities reflect an important part of the electric infrastructure providing 24 percent
of total US electric sales and 31 percent of residential electric sales.
In spite of their important role in the US electric system, cooperative and municipal utilities have received much
less research, media and vendor attention with respect to smart grid issues than investor-owned utilities.
The Smart Grid Research Consortium was initiated at Texas A&M University early in 2010 to develop and apply a comprehensive cost/benefit
smart grid analysis framework for application at electric cooperatives, municipal and other public utilities. The Consortium was developed and
led by Dr. Jerry Jackson, an energy economist with 30 years experience
in new technology market analysis, electric utility modeling and forecasting and financial analysis and a Texas A&M professor.
The Consortium transitioned to an independent research and applications organization in January 2011 with Dr. Jackson
as the Leader and Research Director. Objectives of the
Consortium remain the same: to assist electric cooperatives and public utilities quantitatively evaluate smart grid investments
including developing
investment strategies, evaluating vendor proposals and assessing ongoing investment programs.
The Consortium delivered the first utility-specific Smart Grid Investment
Model (SGIM)TM to each member utility in January 2011 and has devoted 2011 activities to further model and user interface developments and member utility user support.
The 2011 model
was delivered to member utilities in November 2011. Current Consortium activities are now primarily focused on supporting member utility smart grid investment analysis.
Consortium members include large and small electric cooperatives and public utilities.
The fifteen utilities who have participated in the Smart Grid Research Consortium to date include Bandera Electric Coop, Bastrop Power and Light, Bluebonnet, CoServ, Electric Coop, CPS Energy
(San Antonio municipal), Gainesville Regional Utilities, Houston County Electric Coop, Independence Power
and Light, Lawrenceburg Utility Systems, Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), Midwest Energy Cooperative,
Nebraska Public Power District, New Braunfels Electric, Southwest Louisiana Electric Membership Corporation, and Pedernales Electric Coop.
On joining the consortium, we ask each member utility to provide us with monthly electricity sales and 8760 hourly system loads to estimate monthly kWh, peak kW, hourly load profile models to evaluate smart grid technology/programs. We also request other information that helps describe your current infrastructure. We deliver each utility's Smart Grid Investment Model along with preliminary smart grid analysis approximately 3 months after receiving the requested information.
We present the investment model and discuss areas of interest in an online session and then proceed to refine the analysis for areas of greatest utility interest.
We encourage utility staff to exercise the model to gain an understanding of the importance of various factors impacting investment outcomes; however, we recognize staff shortages that occur at most utilities so we are happy to take the lead in conducting investment model analysis.
We continue to work with utility staff to identify and evaluate actionable smart grid investment strategies and to support member utility smart grid efforts including assisting with vendor proposal evaluation, project cost/benefit monitoring and evaluation and identification of emerging smart grid applications that may be of interest to the member utility.
Consortium ResearchPart of the Consortium mission is to address and incorporate new smart grid issues in the Smart Grid Investment Model and applications analysis conducted for member utilities. This commitment ensures that each member utility will always have access to relevant technical and program issues in the future. Impact of electric vehicles, distributed resources and customer engagement program characteristics are three current ongoing research and analysis development areas.