'Smart grid' complex, still 'best thing since sliced bread'

Tue, Jun 7th 2016, 12:58 PM

While PowerSecure International was clearly successful in selling The Bahamas on a "smart grid" with "distributed energy" that would see smaller-scale "firm solar" power generation throughout The Bahamas - or interactive distributed generation (IDG) - the company "failed to communicate how long this is going to take and what the cost will be", according to Zoltan Szasz, vice president of technical sales at Bahamas Energy and Solar Supplies Ltd. In addition, Szasz suggested that the PowerSecure business plan is being "kept secret, probably due to fear of intense scrutiny from the media and some others like us".

In an initial communication with Guardian Business, Szasz pointed out that smart grid technologies were still in the experimental stage in 2013. Even now, he noted, Duke Energy, a supplier for eight U.S. states and some 9 million customers, is just in the final testing of micro and smart grid technologies and has only small commercially operational units.

But while he commented on the secrecy surrounding the PowerSecure business plan, he said, "IDG is the best thing since sliced bread, to say it in 'Bahamian'."

He added, "IDG is the brainchild of some electrical and communication
wizards found with PowerSecure. The very reason why Southern Company paid $431 million for the company is this engineering talent. PowerSecure is a unique 'one-stop-shop' for smart grid technology and the different subsidiaries of PowerSecure can design, manufacture, implement and service the system.

"Whoever made the decision on contracting PowerSecure made the perfect choice, but as you know, the devil is in the details. In the end, this goes deep into energy policies - who is selling and buying power; who can and who cannot get a piece of the pie from the enormous investments and monetary gains; and the list goes on for a mile," Szasz said.

In addition, he noted that what he deemed "silence" from PowerSecure is now presenting the company with a problem, as the public is expecting rapid results in power supply stability as well as significant rate reductions.

"The government also made the mistake to call the bond a 'rate reduction', which is at best a debt reduction vehicle. This bond will never reduce rates, since its purpose is to consolidate old debt. In fact rates have to go up; delinquent customers must pay bills; and a whole new generation and distribution system has to be built to replace the archaic infrastructure," he said.

The numbers
According to Szasz, the goal is 100 percent renewable generation, and to reach it is not impossible.

"We have some of the best solar resources on the planet. Our latest system... panels generated 7.24 MWh (megawatt hours) energy in April. This is 240 kWh/day (kilowatt hours per day) licking an incredible 2,433 kWh/kW/yr if every month was like this. As a comparison, Germany is hovering in the 860 kWh/kW/yr area, and they are planning to be off fossil by 2050," he said.

He noted that smart grids are more complicated than many people can dream of.

"The comparison can be found in IT networking. The system is called a 'mesh network' as opposed to the old one-way concept. In a mesh, everything is connecting to everything else, hence the redundancy and flexibility. The IDG system builds on moving generation and distribution to a level of automation and communication that even the biggest power companies are just starting to get their feet wet in. In addition to adding a significant amount of power coming from a fluctuation solar resource, a relatively expensive storage system is part of the solution," he said.

Unthinkable
Given the complexity he described, Szasz spoke to the likelihood that the technical expertise exists in The Bahamas at present to properly implement and maintain the kind of forward-looking system he described.

"For PowerSecure to implement something like this on the scale of New Providence is unthinkable until they get safe on a smaller scale on smaller islands. This is the reason why they start in the Family Islands. Those projects will be utility owned, and when all these 12 projects are talking, PowerSecure will see enough to embark on New Providence. This, in New Providence, is some years away while PowerSecure will make the existing grid safer by installing all the bits and pieces that are necessary to avoid what happened recently with lightning strikes shutting down generators and the T&D (transmission and distribution) network.

"That's where the technical role of the current Bahamian personnel is about to end. Smart grid expertise needs to be built up gradually, as the nature of it is spread out into several areas. Solar PV (photovoltaic) installation, national electrical code (NEC) adaptation, battery management and power conversion technology, as well as a whole host of IT related managerial staff, needs to be added," he said.

Szasz asserted that PowerSecure has everything it needs to do what it needs to do, but the company needs to start communicating it to the public.

"There must be no political interference and only technical and financial viability should be the benchmark for their performance," he said.

K. Quincy Parker, Guardian Business Editor

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