A novel plan that offers partnership in keeping the United States electric grid stable and reliable could be a win-win for consumers and utility operators.
A novel plan that offers partnership in keeping the United States electric grid stable and reliable could be a win-win for consumers and utility operators.
The largest ever simulation of its kind, modeled on the Texas power grid, concluded that consumers stand to save about 15 percent on their annual electric bill by partnering with utilities. In this system, consumers would coordinate with their electric utility operator to dynamically control big energy users, like heat pumps, water heaters and electric vehicle charging stations.
This kind of flexible control over energy supply and use patterns is called “transactive” because it relies on an agreement between consumers and utilities. But a transactive energy system has never been deployed on a large scale, and there are a lot of unknowns. That’s why the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity called upon the transactive energy experts at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to study how such a system might work in practice. The final multi-volume report was released today.
Hayden Reeve, a PNNL transactive energy expert and technical advisor, led a team of engineers, economists and programmers who designed and executed the study.
Read more at DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Image: In a transactive energy system, the power grid, homes, commercial buildings, electric appliances and charging stations are in constant contact, saving consumers and utilities up to $50 billion a year. (Graphic illustration by Cortland Johnson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
