IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2017 - 85

Viewpoint

(continued from page 88)

these companies be today if they
were still making only mainframes?"
elicits a simple answer: "They would
be out of business."
Several reports have indicated
that our planet's population could
reach 10 billion in a few decades. A
large part of Earth's vast renewable
energy is still untapped. Biofuel and
natural energy sources such as wind,
geothermal energy, waves, rivers, and
solar radiation, along with the storage devices used with these energy
sources, will result in a DG evolution
and a complete restructuring of the
way energy is generated, supplied,
and used. As engineers create a modernized and sustainable grid in a
competitive and restructured energy
environment, the renewable energy
evolution and the resulting paradigm
shift in electricity delivery and consumption could bring about an exciting time in the utility industry, which
would offer extraordinary potential
for attaining a sustainable world plus
significant business opportunities for
launching remarkable technological
innovations in energy delivery and
use. The engineering and regulatory
contributions to this DG evolution
could lead to smart, resilient, carbonless utilities that power the world
using nonpolluting energy technologies to sustain the human race. Our
electricity supply will be more reliable and stable than ever in history,
not to mention cheaper, clean, and
infinitely sustainable.
There are plenty of opportunities
for utilities engaged in the DG evolution, and plenty of business cases for
those individuals who try to emulate
the distributed smartphone evolution in the energy industry, but the
energy sector players will need
revised business and regulatory
structures to really shine. The utility
executives with portfolios of highcost power plants are understandably skeptical about this changing

environment. Those high-cost utilimanage and integrate renewable enerties would have to compete head-on
gy and infrastructure-support revewith the lower-cost independent DG
nues that the utilities collect from DG
power producers and other utilities
users, which could mitigate lost revethat are authorized to invade tradinues from falling demand. The grid
tionally protected utility territories in
can also supply backup power to DG
an open electricity market. Instead
users without energy storage. In this
of continuing to influence rate strucarena, large data analytics can make a
tures to preserve the status quo (a
considerable difference by using the
core competency of utilities), the
detailed information on how and
high-cost utilities should be the
when consumers use electricity and
champions of reform. The fossil fuel
offer an opportunity to reshape peak
industry exerts an enormous presconsumption habits over time. Energy
sure on governments to delay any
efficiency initiatives are inspiring
major actions on greenhouse gas
building occupants to optimize conregulations. Howevsumption and control
er, it is clear that
costs with greater
Our electricity supply
sooner rather than
granularity than ever
will be more reliable
later, finite quantibefore, and smart
and stable than ever in
ties of fossil fuel
sensors allow utilities
assets will be too
to pinpoint and corhistory, not to mention
expensive to extract,
rect faults and opticheaper, clean, and
and the fossil fuel
mize energy networks
infinitely sustainable.
industry will face a
in response to realmajor predicament
time conditions.
for supplying elecAt the same time,
tricity loads. In the near term, the
the lower prices of natural gas make
best way for a utility to protect its
clean energy proponents nervous. Inmoat against DG is to work with regdeed, utility-scale wind, nuclear, and
ulators and resort to the examples
solar projects could face stiff competiembedded in other industries that
tion from natural gas-fired electricity
have gone through similar dilemmas
generation plants. But in other ways,
to educate regulators about the
increasing supplies of natural gas
threat DG poses and work in concert
might be a blessing in disguise for
with corresponding authorities to
clean energy technologies. However,
create constructive rate structures.
when thermal energy sources are
As financial analysts continue to
discovered, produced, distributed,
measure the declining costs of reand become economical, they may
newable energy versus the rising costs
not necessarily be used as a bridge to
of older, fossil-based plants, utilities
transition to renewable energy. Vladcan extract value from their centralimir Putin's annexation of Crimea
ized networks by helping to integrate
shocked the rest of the world. It also
DG. The utilities' centralized grids
made communities around the world
remain a key part of the DG value
aware of how countries that control
proposition, as DG users must be conenergy sources can exert control over
nected to a centralized grid to collect
large regions of the world. Although,
net-metering revenues, which are a
a finite supply of gas cannot satisfy
critical offset to DG installation and
all of the world's energy needs forevmaintenance expenses. These utilities,
er. Furthermore, as one of the Organirather than investing in centralized
zation of the Petroleum Exporting
generation, can help DG customers
Countries' oil ministers once said,
IEEE Elec trific ation Magazine / J UNE 2 0 1 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2017