I recently attended the CIGRÉ Canada conference in Toronto and was very impressed by the lineup of presenters and cross-section of topics. As expected, smart grid was the underlying theme but there were many presentations on renewable technologies and the integration of same into the grid. Main subjects included:

• System planning and operating relative to the evolving grid, including modeling and simulation tools
• Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) – approaches to dealing with expectations surrounding new construction
• Approaches used in obtaining approvals
• Aging infrastructure and its sustainment
• Integration of renewable generators on the transmission and distribution (T&D) systems
• Power quality, including harmonics and voltage fluctuations
• Smart grid and grid modernization, including automation and storage technology
• Electric vehicles and the associated power system impacts and opportunities – vehicle to grid (V2G) and grid to vehicle (G2V)
• Finding capacity on the transmission system
• Advances in providing good customer service
• Accountability for transmission in a deregulated industry; increased competition in transmission development
• Inertia and the stability of the transmission system
• HVDC development
• DC application at the customer level
• Extreme weather impacts
• Data and information management relative to T&D
• Real-time monitoring and control including related telecommunications
• Best Student Paper awards

At one point I sat down with a fellow who works with one of the largest utilities in the country and asked him about a subject very near and dear to me – wind energy, in particular offshore wind energy.

When I lamented about the NIMBY and BANANA crowd hanging about along the north shore of Lake Ontario just east of Toronto in an effort to stop any construction of turbines, he didn’t seem at all fazed by their occupation. I suggested that we live in one of the primo ‘wind tunnels’ that spawns awesome winds across Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario and that offshore wind production is a no-brainer. He flatly agreed there’s an abundance of wind but he said it’s just as powerful onshore surrounding Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and also in Southern and Southwestern Ontario so why go to the expense of building offshore. He also reminded me that studies about bird and bat migration paths show unequivocally that the north shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario are of prime importance to the welfare of these creatures.

“Look at Wolfe Island wind facility and the grief the turbines there are causing to bird and bat populations,” he said. “Arguably, the creatures would likely, in time, change their habits but why should they? There was obviously not enough study done to circumvent the issues. The price is high and we owe it to all Canadians to be the caretakers of this land.”

I totally agreed with him.

“Although it’s hellishly expensive,” he continued, “Ontario alone generated more than 2550 MW of wind power in 2013. Imagine the cost if we go crazy constructing offshore turbines? Don’t forget, there will be no quantitative easing and other bailout handouts for the climate system as there was for the banks and auto sector a few years ago.”

“I dare say, though, that it has to be a win-win if we can promote wind, solar and other forms of renewable energies,” I said.

“I hear you,” he remarked. “Tragically it’s a double-edged sword in so many places on the planet. Many ‘above-it-all’ types persuaded themselves that biofuels were the perfect low-carbon alternative to oil and gas – only to discover that using prime land to grow food for fuel can put an intolerable squeeze on food for people. Widespread hunger is the predictable result. And we see the same problems when policymakers ram through industrial-size wind farms and sprawling desert solar arrays without local participation or consent. As we both know, there will be no shortage of people living in those areas with their own inconvenient opinions about how the land should be used and who should benefit from such projects.”

We were both running thin on time. I thanked him for his insights and bade him good morning.

As I started auditing presentations, it became clearer and clearer how much renewable energy means to this country and by extension, the world.

The first panel talked about Life beyond Smart Grid:

Substantial changes to the electricity distribution system are expected with the drive for automation, and implementation of smart grid technologies. Aside from the emerging technological challenge of information technology and telecommunication, addressing approaches to store, retrieve, and rapidly transfer/transport data, the larger challenge is the ‘analytics’ part and its practical application.

Beyond mass-deployment of smart grid technologies, how can one cleverly analyze the vast amounts of data, for effective use by utilities for real time power system operations, customer service, mid-to-long-term-system planning, asset management, predictive analyses, business decision making, and business operations.

Next morning, the panel discussion centred on questions faced by Innovation and the Evolving Grid:

What are the current broad challenges faced by T&D utilities and customers? What are the recent innovative solutions provided by your company to address a few of these challenges?

What are the future broad challenges faced by T&D utilities and customers? What are the areas of innovative research and development being pursued by your company to address a few of these challenges?

The afternoon session was aimed at Extreme Weather and the Resilient Grid

Extreme weather covers severe weather phenomena that are unseasonal (abnormal) and at the extremes of historical events. Recent studies have shown an increase in the occurrence of extreme weather events in the last decade, some of which have resulted in wide-spread customer power interruptions, stressed power system operations, and caused devastating damage to the power grid.

Extreme weather events have elevated concerns on long-term reliability of the power system, and the adequacy of the existing way of designing, planning, and operating the power system to accommodate extreme weather conditions. There are emerging needs for advanced weather prediction, and risk management techniques to address extreme weather events.

Panel members from the electricity industry discussed and provided their views on recent extreme weather events and spoke about utilities’ response to these events. The discussion covered topics on how to develop a more resilient grid through various measures including: advanced planning and coordination of restoration crews and mobile equipment; enhanced communication systems to effectively identify outages; implementation of effective outage management system; and developing forecasts of changing extremes.

I was also able to sit-in on a couple of workshops. The first one opened the floor to System Development and Economics:

It focused on the applications of asset analytics in managing aging electricity transmission & distribution system infrastructure. As a large number of assets age and deteriorate, their operational risk increases and could impact electricity customers. The building and application of asset analytics tools to support better decisions in planning and prioritizing asset investment has been practically implemented by a few utilities.

Asset Analytics considers factors including asset condition, reliability performance, utilization, economics, criticality to the system, and geospatial information. Asset analytics covers both historical and predictive capabilities to better manage work and planning the management of assets. The workshop was designed to leverage the implementation experience in Canada.

Later in the morning the workshop on Distribution Systems and Dispersed Generation really piqued my interest:

This workshop focused on practical aspects of applying smart grid technologies towards further automating electricity distribution systems. Three utilities highlighted the benefits and challenges of integrating smart grid technologies into the existing systems.

Ontario’s Hydro One covered the implementation of their Advanced Distribution System (ADS) or ‘smart grid’ technical pilot project, to enhance the operating and effectiveness of a portion of the electricity distribution system. Their topics included Hydro One’s ADS ‘Living Lab,’ advanced distribution management system (DMS) algorithms, and WiMax for protection and control applications.

Hydro Québec outlined its work on distribution automation, and the more advanced innovative technologies into their distribution system.

Burlington Hydro in Southern Ontario showed how ‘Disruptive Energy Technologies’ could significantly change electricity utilities business and operation

My brain was spinning by the time I walked out of the various sessions pleased, as I say that so many presenters focused on renewable energies and proud that Electric Energy T&D magazine was a core event sponsor.

As encouraging a look into the future as the talks were, we are running out of time and other resources if we are to get on top of the climate change and other globally pressing issues. After some reading, I discovered that as far back as 2011, the U.N. Department of Economics and Social Affairs looked at how much it would cost for humanity to ‘overcome poverty, increase food production to eradicate hunger without degrading water resources, and avert the climate change catastrophe.’ The figure was $1.9 trillion a year for at least 40 years hence. ‘At least half of the required investments would have to be realized in developing countries.’

As we all know, public spending is going in the opposite direction almost everywhere except for a few fast-growing so-called emerging economies. In North America and Europe, the economic crisis that began some six years ago is still being used as a pretext to slash aid abroad and cut climate programmes at home. All over Southern Europe, and the United Kingdom environmental policies and regulations have been clawed back drastically cutting life-giving subsidies for renewable energy sending solar projects and wind farms spiralling toward default and closure.

Moments when the impossible seems suddenly possible are exceedingly rare and the most must be made of them – if we have the confidence to do so. Time is running out. Since we have only a few short years to dramatically lower our emissions, the only rational and sensible way forward is to fully embrace the principle already well ensconced in Western Law: make the bad guys, i.e. the polluters, pay.