The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has decided to share its vision of the electric power grid in 2035 with industry, vendors, regulators and consumers.

Seamless, cost-effective electricity system from generation to end use

This means supporting both AC and DC and designed to optimize asset utilization and operating efficiency.  It should have different characteristics in different regions, reflecting local circumstances, but be part of a shared national vision.  It should be reliable and resilient, enable new products and services to be added, and help the U.S.’s global competitiveness.

Meeting the clean energy demands and capacity requirements of this century

The DoE sees a dramtic increase in clean energy generation, suggesting 80% by 2035, and accommodating a wide range of generation and storage options.  It would be reasonable to assume that by clean energy is meant the very broad range of options as defined in the current Clean Energy Standard before the Senate.

Allowing consumer participation and electricity use as desired

The DoE vision means informed participation by consumers with complete choice of how they want to participate. It includes distributed resources, demand response, demand-side management, electrification of transportation, and energy efficiency.

Getting there

These are all things that have been part of the vision of renewable energy and smart grid for some time.  What is emerging is a better idea of how to get there.  Jesse Berst sees several things that we need to do to enable the DoE vision of the grid in 2035 to happen.

• AC-DC hybrid systems
• Different degrees of power quality for different customer sets
• Making it easy for outsiders to offer new products, services and markets
• Making it easy for any form of generation or storage to hook into the system
• Giving choice to 100% of customers
• The substation will morph into an “Electricity Systems Hub”

Intelligent substations will become the “pinch point” for end-to-end integration.  The DoE sees a blurring of the distinction between transmission and distribution, which will create opportunities for industry and  make life interesting for regulators.