Page 62 - North American Clean Energy May/June 2020 Issue

energy efficiency
After the Storm
The electric utilities sector long-term implications of COVID-19
by Dr. Graham Ault
THE ELECTRIC UTILITY SECTOR PRIDES ITSELF ON
contingency readiness. Power grid design, communications and control systems, organizational flexibility, and the wider supply chain are set up to protect power supply to customers for an incredibly wide set of events.
Major grid failures in recent years stem from 100-year outliers from elemental sources such as storm, drought, ice, and fire. If extreme weather has always been understood to be an 'act of god', then the emergence of the biological phenomenon of Coronavirus is something completely new and different. The ease and speed of contagion, as well as the real and potential impacts on people across the globe, put COVID-19 into a category all of its own.
Pandemics have been part of utility contingency planning for many years, yet the emergence of COVID-19 is likely to have wide reaching implications on the power grid and power sector.
Firstly though, we must all applaud the work of the system operators and electric utility companies themselves. At a time when life is in danger and basic supplies looked
precarious, it is a relief to society that the power supply is secured in the way it is.
Implementing and adapting contingency plans for the Coronavirus have manifested in adding more layers to the 'layers of security' or 'lines of defense' philosophy. Specific measures reported include segregating control and operational teams, setting up temporary additional backup control centers, ensuring connection robustness for critical customers (e.g. hospitals), supply chain and contractor continuity checks, and cancellation of non-critical works
to avoid workforce distraction or putting the networks into less secure states.
The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) reported that teams of their control room staff are not only segregated, but also living in isolation at the control center to ensure staff availability throughout the crisis.
What demand changes have we seen so far?
With enormous changes to the shape of work and life as we know it, there have been stark and immediate changes to electricity demand patterns, with the knock-on effects on generation and power markets.
A reported 5 to 15 per cent reduction in peak and energy demand across the US, European, and Australian systems started mid-March, compared to the average for last few years.
Weekday demand is looking more like weekend demand, with a later and slower morning ramp up. We’re also seeing lunchtime peaks from home dining, and earlier evening tail-offs resulting from reduced late-night office hours and leisure activities.
There's been a switch from the usual industrial and commercial demand intensity to residential. Week-on-week, we are seeing the expected seasonal demand shifts amplified compared with previous years.
There's also a higher share of the electricity mix from low marginal
cost renewable generation as fossil generation drops from the merit order in lower demand periods, as well as more negative wholesale prices with more feed-through to end prices for time-of- use tariff consumers.
62
MAY•JUNE 2020 ///
www.nacleanenergy.com