BOOKS

close

BOOK REVIEW

Agile Energy Systems: Global lessons from the California Energy Crisis
Dr. Woodrow W. Clark II and Professor Ted Bradshaw, Ph.D.
Elsevier Press 2004

Book Review
By Associate Prof. Dr. Henrik Lund, Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Fibigerstraede 13, DK-9220 Aalborg, Denmark. http://www.plan.aau.dk/~lund/.
E-mail: [email protected] (*)

An Environmental Future must be Agile - so also Energy Systems!!

How should the environmentally sound future energy systems be designed when the oil and gas become too expensive? How could blackouts be avoided in the future? Such questions are not a simple matter of introducing new technologies or changing energy polices to privatization or deregulation. The answers are complex and involve a broader and more interdisciplinary approach.

Such an approach can be found in a new book called, “Agile Energy Systems” by Woodrow W. Clark II and Ted K. Bradshaw. This book, carrying the subtitle “Global Lessons from the California Energy Crisis,” is literature for a broad range of readers from public and private energy companies to policy makers to energy engineers who are interested particularly in the integration of energy policy with sustainable development relating to environment, social and economic issues. Future environmentally sound energy systems are a matter of both technological development as well as the proper policy design of markets and public regulation; what the authors call in their conclusion as the “civic core” in any region, nation or state. In short, as proposed several years ago, there is a significant need for public-private partnerships or “civic markets,” whereby people with special concerns and interests converge to develop and implement policies and plans that benefit the community, environment, and economy for the short and long-term.

This book uses this perspective and to analyze the California energy crisis from June 2000 through the spring of 2001, and continuing past 2005. This ongoing crisis in California (and now worldwide), in which the lights went out in rolling blackouts, deregulation continues to be a mess. Also, the inability of political leaders to develop and implement a new, collaborative, energy plan, has impacted the economic and social growth of California and was responsible, in part, for the “recall” of a Governor, and has caused California to be even more dependent upon “foreign” energy suppliers. The authors present a strategy to avoid such crises in the future and at the same time convert to energy system designs, which are capable of adjusting to future conditions, not only by being based on renewable resources but also by being “agile” and “flexible” to meet the short and long term energy needs of local communities.

By introducing the term “agile” the authors refer to an energy system that is flexible but more importantly, a system within any energy, environmental, waste or water infrastructure able to change quickly. An agile system is adept at change, where innovation is welcomed rather than opposed. Agile energy systems are resourceful and are adept at developing ways to avoid or to solve conflicts, while deconstructing social-economic barriers that slow down effective solutions to problems. Agile systems are dynamic and progressive. Agile systems are not limited either from political pressures or constraints from lobbyists and special interests. Instead, such agile systems foster and promote diversity along with dynamic growth from which there is change using knowledge, intellectual capital, financing mechanisms and advanced technologies.

In one chapter, the book has a very coherent and informative analysis of relevant new energy technologies such as wind power, geothermal, solar thermal, photovoltaic, CHP (combined heat and power), fuel cells and hydrogen options together with conservation and load management. All the technologies are discussed in the light of being components in agile energy systems. There is not one standard or uniform set of circumstances or technologies that fit all communities and regions. Geothermal is not found everywhere. Nor are sunshine and wind, but the combination of these renewable resources along with new technologies for storage such as fuel cells and flywheels provide for hybrid technologies that create firm base loads and dependable power. Such systems can replace or compliment conventional fossil fuel system or be ready in the transition to fully energy independent on-site and distributed energy systems.

Agile Energy Systems are a combination of local or regional energy systems (including on-site, distributed and self-generation) central grid systems that will be used in the future, primarily for redundancy and back-up purposes. These agile systems are not particular technologies or market mechanisms, but rather a paradigm shift that the authors explore to describe this new civic-market-orientation. Such Agile Energy Systems have the following features:

• Diversity. Using diversified and renewable energy sources make agile systems less vulnerable to disruption and more reliable especially, because they are less reliant on distant suppliers who are dependent on declining fossil fuels. This diversity also builds in needed redundancy.
• Balance. Agile systems emphasize best use of energy, not just amount. The balance involves promoting conservation, encouraging shifting of energy use to non-peak times and reducing consumption.
• Interdependence and interconnection. Agile systems find ways to avoid bottlenecks in delivery and integrate energy uses which are traditionally separated. For example, co-generation integrates electricity and heat systems. Hydrogen pairs technologies: e.g. wind-produced electricity can be stored in hydrogen fuel cells and then used as a transport fuel.
• Spatially appropriate. Agile energy systems are smaller and may even be on-site. They are often located close to where energy is needed and coupled with renewable resources. Building specific or on-site generation is critical. Neighborhood scale systems (or distributed generation) are ideal because they factor in environmental costs and can be linked to the grid.
• Regional. An agile system links the community to regional, national and global societal levels.
• Public good. Agile systems have the public good as the primary goal. This is called the “civic core” or the need for the energy market to be government-driven for the local community and citizens.

Both government and industry need clear, concise, long-term-oriented and consistent market rules, standards, codes and operating protocols in order to achieve the goals of sustainable society and business. Hence, the civic markets must adhere to five principles, which are outlined for any such framework:

1. Government oversight of existing utilities. The traditional regulatory framework is close to micro-management as all aspects of the utility are regulated --- for example, prices are set, specific technologies are mandated. A new model of oversight would not replace existing utilities or micromanage them but help them move towards being agile systems by the right combination of incentive and mandate.. An example is favorable contracts by the state for renewable power and distributed power. Another is working on helping intermittent power producers use the grid for backup connections and for obtaining intermittent power.
2. Strategies for transitional costs.. The transition from the regulated systems to the agile system needs tools for dealing with unknowns and negative unintended consequences. The energy mess cost California at least $40 billion in part, due to the fact that the State signed long-term energy contracts at inflated prices, which cannot legally be rewritten. Innovation is more difficult due to these huge costs.
3. Joint public-private investment. Public ownership may not be the right solution. Rather investments from public sector pension funds would allow public influence in the utility. Another example is government and public sector leadership in green power in public buildings.
4. Innovative renewable technological systems. Governments can develop market mechanisms to direct the market to innovative technologies through new regulations, codes and standards. For example, sustainable building codes can factor in energy and material efficiencies.
5. Systematic and regional implications to the power system. Opportunities for energy include economic development such as jobs and business development from emerging technologies as well as environmental solutions such as clean energy.

Although the book has highlighted the theory, there are numerous examples which indicate that many steps have already been taken. The authors are academics and researchers in renewable energy issues with international perspectives. Clark is well positioned for discussing and analyzing the California Energy Crisis, since he was recruited to serve as Governor Davis' Energy Advisor for Reliability and focused on the solutions to the crisis in terms of renewable energy, emerging and advanced technologies as well as finance. Bradshaw, a Professor at the University of California, Davis campus in Community Studies is a scholar in community sustainable development and an expert in the energy field for over twenty-five years.

I strongly recommend the book to any scientist, engineer or technologist, who wants to understand the complex relations of energy market designs and public regulations. Moreover, this book is a must read for any economist or market analyst who wants to obtain a coherent understanding of the costs, technological and future options for any infrastructure system. Also, of course, the book is indeed relevant and informative to those of us who recognize the need for interdisciplinary approach and want to learn more about how it works in energy and other fields.

(*) Henrik Lund is M.Sc. in engineering (1985) and has been associated professor at the Department of Development and Planning at Aalborg University in energy planning since 1993 and head of department from 1996 to 2002. Dr. Lund holds a PhD in “Implementation of Sustainable Energy Systems” (1990). His area of expertise has been energy system analysis, energy planning and energy economics for 20 years. The International Energy Foundation (IEF) gave him a gold medal for ”Best Research Paper Award” within the area “Energy Policies &Economics;” in 1998. He has been involved in a number of research projects and committee works in Danish energy planning, and in the implementation of various local energy projects in Denmark as well as in other countries. In 2001 he was member of an expert group analysing “management of fluctuations in electricity production from renewable energy and CHP” conducted by the Danish Energy Agency for the Danish Parliament.