Accenture Study Finds Growth in
Customer Solar Power Installations Poses Significant
Challenges for the Electric Grid
Nov. 7, 2011 - newsroom.accenture.com
The increased penetration of solar energy installations
by residential and commercial property owners and
large-scale solar energy developers could undermine
the reliability, safety and quality of power supply
on the electric grid for utilities that do not plan
for it, according to a new Accenture (NYSE: ACN)
study.
The study, based on a survey of 50 executives with
31 North American utility providers, found that 38
percent of respondents believe their electric grids
will require an upgrade or face operational challenges
with a solar photovoltaic (PV) penetration level
of less than 15 percent. An additional 34 percent
said their utility will face similar issues with
a solar PV penetration of between 15 and 24 percent.
Distributed generation by residential and commercial
property PV systems (51 percent of all installations)
and developer-owned systems (15%) are already causing
problems for a significant number of utilities. These
include high costs to provide reactive power/voltage
support (cited by 36 percent of the respondents),
additional interconnection requirements (30 percent),
and grid instability caused by anti-islanding requirements
(18 percent).
Additional findings of the survey include:
Some functional areas in transmission and distribution
operations will require upgrade in capability as
a result of the increase in solar penetration.
Many utilities are already performing some key
functions
that are needed to integrate high penetration of
solar PVs, such as grid analytics (48 percent),
PV systems control (44 percent), PV system management
(32 percent) and commercial transactions (32 percent);
Utilities are more likely to use automated solutions
than real-time manual intervention to mitigate
and manage the negative impact of solar PV
systems such
as grid instability and power output fluctuations.
The three main methods utilities expect to
use are power factor control, reactive power
requirements
and active power management, where the power
factor of PV systems output remains fixed or
vary on a
pre-determined
basis (cited by 61 percent), automatic reactive
power requirements, where PV systems are required
to automatically
provide real-time dynamic reactive power support
to the grid (48 percent), and the active management
of each PV system at all times (44 percent);
The most common model for solar PV ownership
is customer-owned (51 percent), followed by
utility-owned
(34 percent)
and third-party or developer-owned (15%), where
a non-utility company generates large amounts
of solar
energy and sells it either to a utility or
on the wholesale market.
The most common model for solar PV ownership
is customer-owned (51 percent), followed by
utility-owned (34 percent) and third-party
or developer-owned (15%), where a non-utility
company generates large amounts of solar energy
and sells it either to a utility or on the
wholesale market.
“
Solar power has great potential as a source of renewable
energy as developers continue to innovate and reduce
the cost of PV production,” said David M. Rouls,
managing director, Accenture Smart Grid Services. “However,
the large-scale penetration of solar
PVs will require Smart
Grid planning and changes by utilities
to realize
its benefits.”
Accenture recommends that utilities take
a number of actions to manage the impact
of solar
PV, take
advantage of its growth and successfully
integrate higher levels of solar PV production
into their
operations:
1) Proactively facilitate solar PV deployment
and new ownership models
by providing infrastructure, system
and processes
; review existing
roadmaps and/or develop
a comprehensive
roadmap for
utility T&D
infrastructure upgrades
and smart grid implementation
with a clear
focus on
the impacts of increased
penetration of solar
PV;
2) Accelerate smart grid initiatives
in transmission and distribution to
sustain high penetration
solar in the grid;
3) Review the impacts and risks on
the utility business processes and
redesign the processes
as needed for
efficient integration and facilitation
of solar PV in the utility system.
About the study
The “Achieving
High Performance with Solar Photovoltaic Integration” study
is based on a survey
conducted by IDC
Energy Insights
of North
American-based
utilities that
are either already
seeing
the
impact
of increased
renewable energy
additions or
are planning
to increase their
exposure to renewables.
The quantitative
survey
was conducted
online between
March and June
2011 with
50 respondents
from 31 utilities.
In addition,
12 in-depth interviews
were conducted.
Investor-owned
utilities (IOUs)
made up 72 percent
of the utilities
in the sample,
with the remainder
consisting of cooperative
utilities,
authorities
and municipal utilities
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting,
technology services
and outsourcing company, with approximately
236,000 people serving
clients
in more than 120 countries.
Combining unparalleled
experience,
comprehensive capabilities
across all industries and business
functions,
and extensive research
on the world’s
most successful companies,
Accenture collaborates with clients
to help
them become high-performance
businesses
and governments. The
company generated net revenues
of US$25.5 billion
for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011.
Its
home
page is www.accenture.com.
|
