Abstract
Over one sextillion watt hours of electricity is consumed around the world
annually - mostly produced and distributed on demand using 100-year-old
technology. There are less than 10,000 central power plants producing most of
this electricity. A primary reliance on this centralized production has left
us with increasingly troublesome issues of significant environmental impact,
transmission losses, geographic social and economic inequities, and the
increasing vulnerability of exposed and unsecured lines to natural and
man-caused disaster damage. In addition, historically, most power systems
simply feed "dumb" loads from hard wired fixed physical grids. But an
increasing focus on clean, fault tolerant, resilient, economical, and efficient
energy use is leading to us to consider transforming these systems to
significantly more interactive ones with the capability of intelligent load
management, storage, decentralized mesh wiring topologies and the employment of
an increasingly diverse set of combined clean generation sources.
This presentation discusses an expanded role for interconnected distributed
renewable energy microgrids in new mesh networks, based on hybrid use of AC and
DC power. It is posited that connecting power creation to power consumption in
a network of massively distributed microgrids will yield the analogous
capability of an 'Enernet' or electric energy network to power fixed and mobile
loads in the 21st century. The presentation will also introduce the concept of
a transactive energy framework used to enable a combination of economic and
control techniques to manage power flows within the network to optimize
operations and commerce within a multi-tiered arrangement of both public and
private microgrids and macrogrids in a Grid-of-Grids topology.Speaker Bio
Brian T. Patterson is Chairman and co-founder of the EMerge Alliance. He is a
40 plus year veteran of the electrical and electronics industry, has an
extensive technical and work history in electronics, fiber optics and building
electrical systems technologies and holds multiple patents in those fields. He
is currently Managing Director of B. L. Coliker Associates, a market and
technology consulting firm. Prior positions include General Manager at
Armstrong World Industries, Director of AMP Incorporated’s Fiber Optic
Business, and President of an Electronic Interconnect Division of Kollmorgen
Corporation.
He is the US National Council International Electrotechnical Commission’s
technical advisor to the System Evaluation Group on Low Voltage (under 1500V)
Direct Current. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers Standards Association, the IEEE Power and Energy Society, the
Continental Automated Buildings Association, the Power Supply Manufacturer’s
Association, and the UL/NEMA/EMerge ad hoc NFPA National Electrical Code task
group on DC power. Mr. Patterson is also past chairman of the NIST Smart Grid
Interoperability Panel Distributed Renewable Generation and Storage Distributed
Energy Work Group Microgrid Subgroup.
Patterson has been a featured speaker at: US Green Building Council
International, LightFair International, American Institute of Architect,
Applied Power Electronics, International Telecommunications Energy,
International Electrotechnical Commission, International Facility Management
Association, the Smart Energy Power Association and Solar Energy Industry
Association’s Annual Solar Power International Smart Energy Week and numerous
other national and international industry, government and academic forums. He
is a professionally accredited course author and instructor for the American
Institute of Architects, the US Green Building Council, and the Illuminating
Engineering Society of North America. He has also authored articles for major
industry and professional trade magazines and is the official spokesperson of
the EMerge Alliance.