BPA Looks for Greener Solutions

BPA Looks for Greener Solutions

KALISPELL - Jun 10 - Missoulian

As goes the global climate so goes the business climate, at least for power producers who find themselves scrambling to invest in clean, green energies and energyefficient technologies. "In the future," said Terry Oliver, we will live in a carbonconstrained world. The question is, what does that mean for our industry?"

Oliver is chief technology innovation officer for Bonneville Power Administration, the region's largest supplier of hydroelectric energy. "Essentially," he said, "I'm the R&D man."

His position, which has only existed since 2005 at BPA, is itself a sure sign of the times because for power producers, research and development is where it's at during this time of global business change, driven by climate change and increasing interest in containing carbon emissions.

Last week, BPA announced it was joining a sweeping nationwide effort to develop new energy technologies.

Coordinated by the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute, the initiative is aimed at researching energy-efficient technologies that not only cut power use, but also curb greenhouse gases.

It might seem counterintuitive, Oliver said, but the one does not necessarily lead to the other.

"We've been good at the efficiency side of things," he said "but not so good at reducing the greenhouse emissions."

Problem is, he said, the regional power grid is a blend.

Some power comes from hydroelectric darns, some from coalfired plants, some from natural gas facilities.

As demand rises and falls with the seasons and even with the time of day. Oliver said, the blend changes. That means a technology that increases energy efficiency must be properly timed it' it is also to cut greenhouse Oases.

Otherwise, "we could reduce use at a time when it's all coming from hydro, only to increase use at a time when it comes from a coal plant."

That would increase efficiency, but would at the same time Increase emissions.

Further complicating matters is the fact that regional electricity use patterns are quickly changing. It used to be winter was the peak season in the Pacific Northwest, Oliver said, but the emergence of household air conditioning is rapidly making summer a peak point as well.

The EPRI research into new technologies also will focus on better understanding how power providers can actually change consumer demand, perhaps through smart appliances. An example would he cost meters indicating the real-time price of power throughout the day. Recent research indicates such meters compel homeowners to run dishwashers and clothes dyers during off hours, when costs are lower.

Another example, Oliver said, could be appliances equipped with computer chips allowing them to "talk" to the regional Power grid. As demand peaks and the grid is strained, those appliances would automatically cut back.

In addition, the research initiative is exploring how best to measure carbon emissions and the gains made by carbon reductions. Only by crafting a uniform method for computing carbon can power producers hope to assess the benefits, if any, and the costs of various technological "solutions."

"That's a big part of this initiative," Oliver said. "We need to be able to measure what we are doing now, and what works better."

Otherwise, he said, money could be spent on projects and technologies that, in reality, have very little effect on global climate.

"Greenhouse gas emissions are clearly going to be the focus of major political initiatives responding to global climate change," said Steve Hickok, BPA deputy administrator. "With the United States responsible for one-quarter of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions, and electric utilities responsible for one-third of that it is only a matter of time before we are in the crosshairs."

The time has come, Hickok said, to "move out on this front" by developing new tools and technologies.

Oliver is reluctant to predict which technologies hold the most promise, but he does make one firm forecast about the future: "There will be more pressure on power producers to account for their impacts on climate."

And that means more pressure to generate a cleaner megawatt, more pressure to conserve energy so that new megawatt is not needed in the first place. Those pressures, he said, can only be relieved through public research and development.

In recent years, he said, private-sector research and development has resulted in impressive breakthroughs, but new technologies have remained proprietary, locked down with private patents. Oliver believes the time has come for a more open and collaborative approach, which is why the quasi-governmental BPA has joined two dozen utilities across the nation in funding EPRI's new research initiative.

Currently, he said, BPA spends between one-quarter and onehalf of 1 percent of its revenues on research and development, including ongoing work toward reliability, efficiency, renewable alternatives and transmission.

Bonneville's initial contribution to the research and development initiative totaled $186,000, a company spokesperson said, a small percentage of EPRI's project budget of nearly $4 million.

It's a relatively small contribution for an agency that markets some 40 percent of the electricity used in the Pacific Northwest, and that operates more than 15,000 miles of transmission lines in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Ongoing investment - both financial and technical - in the EPRI initiative will not appreciably increase Bonneville's R&D spending, though, and should not affect rates.

"We, and utilities across the country, were way behind in supporting the kind of research and development that will keep the lights on," Oliver said. "There just wasn't a perceived need for this 15 years ago."

But now, he said, the perception has quickly shifted, marking a "major change in the way power producers conduct business."