SmartPower & SmartHomes

Friday, May 1, 2015

SECURING ELECTRICAL POWER in the BAHAMAS
With the frequency of power outages recently experienced in New Providence, the government announcement to select PowerSecure International Inc as the preferred bidder to manage BEC could not have come at a better time. PowerSecure will manage both generation and transmission/distribution, for a period of five years.

Changes at BEC will begin taking place in short order. Why? There is an obvious mandate in the wording of the agreement to see a measurable return on investment within the 60 month duration of the contract.

Meanwhile, the public is anxiously awaiting detailed guidance on RESG application, registration, installation and production parameters.

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Solar kWh Costs - News Archive

Having recently seen single module PV prices dropping to a low of $0.60/Watt, it's no surprise to also see associated solar electric kWh costs plummet.

Searching through online archives we find a related article posted February 12, 2014 on www.Energy.Gov, by Erin R. Pierce, "The U.S. solar industry is growing at a record-breaking pace, while becoming more affordable and accessible than ever before. The industry’s forward progress comes in part thanks to support from the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative.

Set up in 2011 to re-establish U.S. leadership in the solar marketplace, SunShot partners with industry, universities, local communities and the Department’s National Laboratories to aggressively drive down the cost of solar-powered electricity generation across America.

To achieve this goal, SunShot works to lower the price of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt hour (KWh) -- a cost target that will make solar-generated power to be fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade."

Fast forward to 2015 and we read of a recent study by the Berlin-based Agora Energiewende, a leading German think tank. The lead author, and renewable energy specialist Daniel Fuerstenwerth says that one of the reasons for the study was the lack of recognition among policy makers and advisors about future cost falls in solar PV, and official forecasts which continued to downplay the potential role of the technology.

He goes on to say that "the cost reduction potential of large scale solar is still misunderstood, and predicts that solar PV will be the cheapest form of power within a decade, and cost less than $US0.02/kWh by 2050."

Originally published in RenewEconomy, we further read from the Angora report that “Our results indicate that solar power will become the cheapest source of electricity in many regions of the world, reaching costs of between Euro 1.6 and 3.7c/kWh in India and the Mena region (Middle East and North Africa) by 2050.

Cost competitiveness, we're told, with large scale conventional power plants will be reached in these regions already within the next decade, at a cost for solar power by 2025 ranging between 3.3 and 5.4 ct/kWh.

The article places emphasis on the fact that, "in UAE for instance, solar is already cost competitive, with a tender for 200MW of solar going at less than $US0.06/kWh, less than the prevailing cost of gas-fired generation at $US0.09/kwh."

GREENING your COMMUNITY

Here's News You Can Use to improve the efficiency of your home and lower your energy costs prior to implementing a Solar Power system.

1. Energy Conservation: Reduce energy consumption by using more energy efficient appliances and electrical devices in your home. Search for verified appliances and electronics that bear the "Energy Star" Label.

2. Switch to LED Lighting: Replace your CFL Bulbs with Dimmable LED Bulbs. By upgrading to LED Bulbs, you can reduce your lighting loads by as much as 60%.

3. Insulation: Your home will stay cooler if you insulate your Attic Areas and Exterior Walls from the harsh summer heat.

4. Programmable Thermostats: Modern digital thermostats allow you to automatically control the operation of your Air Conditioner for optimal performance, saving up to 10% in the process.

5. Lower Water Heater Temperature to 120 Degrees: Check the temperature on your Electric Water Heater to ensure it is below 140 Degrees. By lowering the temperature to 120 Degrees you can reduce your water heating expense by as much as 10%.

6. Utilize a Water Heater Timer: With an automatic timer you can reduce your water heating expense dramatically. While away your heater is cycled off. Prior to returning in the evening it's cycled on. Timers are an inexpensive solution that pays big dividends.

7. Clean Refrigerator Coils: Your refrigerator/freezer can represent up to 5% or more of your monthly energy expense. To allow your refrigerator to operate efficiently, it helps to regularly clean dust out of the coils to allow unrestricted air-flow and to minimize freezer ice build–up.

8. Utilize Cooking Alternatives: Microwave ovens consume approximately 80% less energy than conventional ovens. As often as practical, use a Microwave oven to cook or reheat food. The shorter cooking times translates into lower energy consumption.

Anti-Islanding Protection
A term that is often brought up when discussing grid-tied renewable energy systems. It's a term that you should become very familiar with if you're considering a grid-tie solar system.

An important point to understand is that, for safety reasons, a grid-tie solar system is designed to shut down power production to the grid when there is a utility grid outage.

A hybrid system, shuts down power production to the grid, but is capable of powering local loads independently.

In summary, anti-islanding protection, is a safety feature built into compliant grid-tie and hybrid inverters that sense utility grid faults and outages and automatically shuts down the inverter, preventing feeding of power back onto the utility grid.

CANADIAN ELECTRICAL CODE
Under the Canadian electric code, anti-islanding is referenced as, CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 107.1-01-General Use Power Supplies and additional standards listed below.

UL-1741
In the United States, the standard for anti-islanding protection is specified as UL 1741 which is associated with IEEE 1547.

Grid-tie inverters employed in the Bahamas will more than likely be anti-islanding compliant.

For more in depth discussion regarding anti-islanding, and smart-grid management, here is an expanded list of standards.

UL1741 Inverters, Converters, Controllers and Interconnection System Equipment for use with Distributed Energy Resources.

CSA 22.2 No. 107.1 -01
(R2011)
General Use Power Supplies

CAN/CSA-C22.2 NO. 257-06
(R2011) Interconnecting
Inverter Based Micro
Distributed Resources
to Distribution System

CAN/CSA-C22.3 NO. 9-08
Interconnection of distributed
resources and electricity
supply systems

IEEE 2030 Smart Grid Interoperability Series

IEEE Standard 1547.4- 2011
Guide for Design Operation,
and Integration of Distributed
Resource Island Systems
with Electric Power Systems

Friday, May 1, 2015

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