The P2P Energy grid is a concept whereby any home could produce its own energy, using renewable energies like solar energy, and sell its surplus to others who need it.

Definition

"Microgrids are “a collection of small generators for a collection of users in close proximity,” explains Dr Markvart, whose research appears in the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Ingenia magazine. Microgrids’ premise is that electricity demand is split up and shared around the network of users, much like BitTorrent file sharing. “This microgrid appears to the larger grid as if it’s any other customer. And it can quickly switch between operating on and off the grid: when the grid offers cheap electricity, the microgrid can purchase it, but if prices rise or there’s a power failure, the microgrid can isolate itself. ” (http://www.ivanenviroman.com/2007/03/08/microgrids-are-p2p-electricity/)

Discussion

Arguments for Microgeneration of Energy

"Microgeneration is cost-effective. Some of Micropower technologies are more accessible than others but all can deliver on at least two of the four energy policy objectives; reductions in C02 emissions, reliability of supply, fuel poverty relief and maintaining competitiveness. For example, a micro-CHP unit will deliver the same comfort levels as a modern boiler, whilst reducing the emissions of a typical house by 1.5 tonnes (around 25%) of CO2 per year. This can help relieve fuel poverty, supply 1 - 5kW of peak electricity generating capacity - and provide the major utilities with some competition. Other forms, such as micro-wind turbines and solar panels, can cut energy bills by up to £100 per year or be integrated in conjunction with other types of microgenerators to offer genuine zero carbon residences. Moreover if just one quarter of all gas boilers that will be replaced between now and 2020 are replaced with ones that can generate power, the capacity this will bring is the equivalent to just under half of that provided by today’s nuclear power stations.
A typical large power station wastes over a third of its fuel by simply heating up the atmosphere. A further 10% of this is wasted in transmission and distribution, meaning less than half of the fuel is used productively by the consumer. By comparison, microgeneration technologies use more than 90% of the fuel productively for heat or electricity, or are powered by clean, renewable sources.
Microgeneration helps to combat climate change. Some forms of micropower use fuels or energy sources that produce no greenhouse gases and are classed as renewable energy. Those that do use fossil fuels do so with efficiencies typically of greater than 90%.
Some micropower technologies, when taken up in large numbers, will provide a more predictable source of power generation than large power stations. They also relieve pressure on the grid at times of strain. They enhance diversity and security of supply, and for some technologies back-up power is also available in the event of a blackout.
Microgeneration is a catalyst for cultural change.There are wider benefits than just cost and carbon reductions Consumers with microgeneration exhibit noticeable changes in their energy use, as well as sending a clear visual signal of a property contributes in generating low or zero carbon energy to neighbours."

(http://www.micropower.co.uk/about/whymicropower.html)

Solar power as inherently distributed

Travis Bradford of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, and author of the book: Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry, in an interview by Alternet

Travis says that we’re moving towards a distributed power generation model, with solar as the only viable option.

He says:

Solar is different from other energy technologies in that it delivers energy at the point of use, directly to the end user. That allows it to circumvent the entire supply chain. It’s not another option for a utility, it’s a competitor to a utility — the first time utilities have really had a competitor.

Solar is slowly going to begin to unwind the existing utility economics, to the point where utilities decide they have to get in or they risk losing their core business — exactly the transformations we’ve lived through in the last 20 years.

The solar revolution does not require new breakthroughs in technology. You could do it with the technology we have, scaling it up and learning how to do it incrementally better every year — which is what naturally happens with scale.

Everything has to reconnect. The infrastructures that separated — first at the beginning of the century, and again in the middle of the century for natural-gas infrastructure — have to reconnect. And we’ll need a lot more electricity to drive that.

There are real capacity constraints in any transportation-fuel option until we reconnect it with the electricity infrastructure. You do that either with plug-in hybrids or with electrolyzed hydrogen. My guess is that batteries will be better for transportation purposes, and electrolyzed hydrogen for stationary applications, because fuel cells on site are much easier to make than fuel cells with the thrust needed in automobiles.

Question by Alternet: What about the political implications of solar power? Will the decentralization of power production be accompanied by a decentralization of political power?

Bradford: Solar power is empowering. All things being equal, people like to control the resources upon which they rely. That’s why I spend time thinking about solar technologies rather than centralized, easily controlled technologies. At the end of the day, sustainability includes distributed power and democratization."

Examples

Case: California

Michael Bishop describes a possible opening in California [1]

"It's possible that in the near future, the California Energy Commision and/or the California Public Utilities Commission will require the utility companies to actually pay residents that put more electricity into the grid than they took out of it. Once this happens, distributed generators will have much more leverage for developing P2P networks in which surplus electricity is bought and sold with minimal utility involvement.

The electric grid has huge potential as an 'open source' network. Advances in net metering (check out the yet-to-be-implemented Western Renewable Generation System: http://www.westgov.org/wieb/wregis/) are allowing folks to know exactly how much electricty they're producing and how much they're consuming at any given time. And it would be great for people to know that they can purchase renewable energy from a pal down the street. Open-source applications would be very appropriate for facilitating the open-source electricity network.

The California commissions have recognized some of the major problems with the current set up. Last fall, they put over $3 billion into renewable energy funding for the next decade and made it clear that radical changes would need to be made to California electricity systems in order to accomodate their ambitious goals (20% of California energy renewable by 2010; 33% by 2020). I think that further action on their part is critical for P2P networks to become feasible. Let's hope they've learned from the failed deregulation attempt in 2001."

More Information

Energy Action Plan II at [2].

CEC's 2004 Integrated Energy Policy Report at [3].

This World Changing blog entry summarizes different initiatives, at http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002152.html

See the webcast on Decentralized Energy

Key Books to Read

Power to the People : How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Save the Planet. Vijav Vaitheeswaran. Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2003

Powerdown : Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World. Richard Heinberg. New Society Publishers, 2004

"an overview of the likely impacts of oil and natural gas depletion and then outlines four options for industrial societies during the next decades:

Last One Standing: the path of competition for remaining resources;

Powerdown: the path of cooperation, conservation and sharing;

Waiting for a Magic Elixir: wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial;

Building Lifeboats: the path of community solidarity and preservation."

P2P Energy Grid

Contents