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A world leader in microgrids
Can Alaska export and monetize its state-of-the-art expertise in the implementation and operation of small, self-sufficient electrical systems? Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
Having become a world leader in the implementation of microgrids for the distributed supply of electricity, Alaska has an opportunity to capitalize on that expertise, using its first mover status to benefit from the economics of exporting its capabilities, Gwen Holdman, director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, University of Alaska Fairbanks, told the Commonwealth North Energy Policy Study Group on Feb. 26. Holdman compared Alaska with Iceland, a country with a very small population that has been able to export its expertise in geothermal energy.
ACEP has formed the Alaska Microgrid Group and is working with several Alaska electrical associations, to figure out ways to export and try to monetize Alaska expertise, Holdman said.
Widely dispersed communities With a small population spread around widely separated communities, the provision of electricity supplies in Alaska has involved the construction of local microgrids, typically using some blend of traditional oil-fueled generation and renewable energy, mostly in the form of wind and solar energy.
Commenting that the recent power supply problems in Texas resulted from a lack of resilience of the Texas grid, in the face of unanticipated events, Holdman argued that the type of distributed microgrid configuration found in Alaska brings resilience to the overall power supplies - a power outage in one part of the state does not impact other parts of the state. In that respect, Holdman even characterized the Alaska Railbelt electrical system as a system of interconnected microgrids in the various load centers - although, for example, Fairbanks obtains some power from the south via a long-distance transmission line, the Fairbanks region has sufficient capacity by itself to withstand a power outage in the Anchorage region or elsewhere.
However, this type of resilience, as distinct from minute-by-minute reliability, does come at a cost, given the need for local power generation capacity that will typically exceed the capacity necessary to support the total load across a complete region, Holdman commented.
Helping communities ACEP constantly seeks ways of helping communities find new solutions for improving their electricity supply arrangements and minimizing the cost of heat and electrical power for residents.
In Kake, in the Panhandle, and in Kotzebue in Northwest Alaska, for example, ACEP is working with local organizations to evaluate the use of air source heat pumps to heat residences. A heat pump, a kind of reversed air conditioner, can be a more efficient means of heating a building than a conventional electric heater. In Kotzebue ACEP has installed devices that can non-invasively measure household fuel oil consumption, to gain a better understanding of household heat use. Another ACEP device can monitor power outages and power quality data.
In the Railbelt, ACEP has been working with Matanuska Electric Association to implement combined solar and battery systems at the far end of a long transmission line, particularly in the Talkeetna area, to address power supply reliability issues at the ends of long lines, Holdman said.
Energy storage Energy storage, often using batteries, is a key to achieving supply reliability in an isolated microgrid. But batteries are typically expensive - APEC has been working with Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, for example, to figure out how to minimize the amount of storage needed to assure electricity supply reliability. And ACEP has developed computer software that can help determine right-sized solutions, Holdman said.
Another potential energy storage option consists of using surplus electricity to generate heat that can be stored for future use in an electric boiler, for example. Electrically pumped hydro can also store excess electrical power.
There may be future opportunities to reduce electrical costs for remote communities by connecting some communities’ electrical systems using buried, medium-voltage, DC power transmission lines - vehicle technology used in rural Canada to install long-distance, remote fiber optic cable lines might be used for this, Holdman said.
Micro nuclear reactors There is also much interest in the future potential to use micro nuclear reactor technologies for remote electricity supplies. Research is in progress into the development of tiny 1- to 10-megawatt reactors that would be buried in the ground when in use. Operating as something akin to nuclear batteries, these would have lives of 10 to 20 years, after which they would be replaced by new units. However, although these systems may be tested in demonstration projects in a few years time, commercial implementation would still be quite a few years into the future.
Socio-economic issues Holdman said that ACEP is working with researchers across the Arctic, looking into socio-economic issues associated with electricity supplies in remote communities, especially indigenous communities. One interesting issue, for example, is the connection between electrical power use and heating, in terms of food supplies and community sustainability. For example, a reduction in people’s fuel oil bills can enable the purchase of fuel for use in subsistence activities, Holdman commented.
And the operation of modern microgrids involves expertise in the ways in which this type of electrical system differs from a more traditional, large scale system. Whereas a traditional system typically involves generators with much rotating inertia, a microgrid with renewable energy sources acts very differently, Holdman said.
By exporting Alaska expertise in these types of issue to other parts of the world, it is possible to enable other projects to benefit from Alaska’s lessons learned while also ensuring that Alaska remains at the forefront of microgrid technology, Holdman suggested.
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