DOE promises little for US power grid

OREANDA-NEWS.  Three-quarters into its run, President Barack Obama's Administration stays at odds with much of the US energy industry. The biggest contribution of the current White House to the power sector may end up being a greater awareness of physical grid limitations and vulnerabilities.

Department of Energy (DOE) officials suggested recently that the Quadrennial Energy Review, due out in a few weeks, will focus on needed infrastructure, but with a light hand. Integration of intermittent generation is not the same hurdle as it was five years ago, which gives the administration the freedom to push a variety of technologies located closer to the meter.

Senior energy department staff in the past two weeks have mentioned the smart grid, improved heating, ventilation and air conditioning, the thermal mass of buildings, distributed generation and combined heat and power as key issues.

"The challenges to the grid of the future come more from policy and jurisdictional constraints than from infrastructure," says Melanie Kenderdine, director of the DOE office of energy policy and systems analysis. "When you compare jurisdictional grid maps to ones that model power flows, they are very different."

An integrated eastern interconnect has been discussed for a decade and a half, and it is unlikely that North Dakota will take orders from Norristown, Pennsylvania, the home of the PJM Interconnection — the largest US grid operator. But the message that consumers and politicians will not tolerate seams arbitrage forever is openly discussed more often.

Senior department adviser Bill Hederman told state utility regulators last week that the review will not address a fix to the natural gas pipeline capacity market and the best response by the federal government may be to keep the pressure on all parties. Indifference by the gas industry means ceding some market share for power generation.