Demand Response

High amounts of energy consumption is becoming a major issue we are facing here in the United States. We all need to do our share of minimizing our usage to prevent power outages during crucial times. This past summer living here in Boston, I have a vivid memory of the nasty heat wave we were hit with. All I wanted to do when I came home was to sit in my cool, blasted air conditioned apartment. In order for this to be possible, the power plants must send electricity to the device, but what we don’t keep in mind is how many of us are all doing the same thing at the same time. All of our electricity is coming from a power grid, giving us immediate power. Some of us leave it running 24 hours a day, and what we aren’t realizing is that it’s not just us who want a cool home, it’s everyone else too. The same thing goes for our heating in the winter time, not to mention the cost to heat up your home during the bitterness. When we all want something at the same time, the demand load increases on a grid.

What can we do to minimize our usage of electricity to prevent loosing it all completely due to abuse? Demand response is something to manage customer consumption of electricity in response to supply conditions. This is for customers to be able to minimize their use of electricity during critical times or in response to market prices voluntarily. “Our demand for electricity is growing and the Energy Information Administration estimates that demand will rise at least 40 percent by 2030” (source: EEI, How Stuff Works).

PG&E explains that by temporarily reducing demand when our resources reach capacity, we have a more environmentally responsible game plan to protect our environment and stabilize the energy systems, preventing blackouts. PG&E states that, “With demand response, you can take small (and big) steps to reduce your electricity demand. And by doing so, you’ll be giving a whole lot back- and earning incentives, too”.

So, what’s the next step in establishing this demand response?

Businesses are establishing an energy conserving plan within it’s own company, as well as with the local power companies. By simply turning off lights when you exit the room, shutting off monitors and appliances not in use, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator are all simple and easy ways we can reduce our energy consumption. The benefits we gain are lower electricity bills, reducing the chance of a power outage during an environmental crisis, and most importantly lowering energy consumption. Some power companies are even willing to pay businesses for the amount of electricity they cut back on. The supply and demand of electricity can be maintained if we all do our share by cutting back and using a demand resource.

 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/demand-response.htm

http://www.pge.com/demandresponse/

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-demand-response-work-35202.html

 

 

Robotics

Last Tuesday in class Candice and I were able to make the robotic lego car we built move in circles. We inputted our measurements of the car whEels into the program we used in class, with the circumference measurements of  (.173). Using the software on the computer we constructed a motor for our vehicle and was able to signal the car to go in different directions at various speeds. By giving out ports A and C, and B and D a speed of 30, we were able to discover the distance that the car traveled, the wheel rotation and the velocity of the vehicle. After we compared the programs measurements and our own measurements with a ruler, and discovered a slight error between the two.

 

After measuring the distance with a ruler we found an error of about 6.1 percent, but we were accurate when we calculated the number of turns the wheel performed when traveling. The distance traveled going by what the program said was a distance of .35 meters, and the number of wheel turns to be about 1.46 rotations after the car ran for 1 second. The actual distance traveled we discovered to be .27 meters. When we calculated the distance and measured the wheel diameter it was 5.3cm x 3.14(pie) x the calculated number of wheel turns 1/46 to see that the car should have really traveled .25 meters.

 

Fukushima Nuclear Power plant

On March 11, 2011, the largest nuclear disaster occurred in Japan since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. This devastating event was rated level 7 on the International Nuclear Radiological Events (INES) scale due to the hundreds of thousands of residential buildings damaged and destroyed, and a significant amount of citizens suffering from injuries and deaths. Due to the equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials, Japan is now facing a major crisis.

The earthquake followed by seven tsunamis left the Japanese coast pieces. 500,000 residential buildings were damaged and destroyed, and 16,000 people were announced dead with 4,000 still missing as of October 7, 2011 according to the Japanese Red Cross, explaining that drowning caused 90% of the deaths. With the tsunami waves reaching the maximum of 46-49 feet, I’m sure we can all visualize and feel pain this traumatic circumstance for the Japanese people involved. Also as result, 4 million homes lost electricity. Workers are putting themselves at risk by performing without light and inhaling the bad toxins and debris all around.

Naoto Kan, the Japanese Prime Minister, announced at a press conference, “that the Fukushima nuclear plant, where leaks of radioactive materials and other serious problems still emerging, ‘still does not warrant optimism’”. Major issues concerning this event include the highly radioactive water in the basements of reactors 1-3, signifying damage to the reactor pressure vessel. The leakage was still unexplainable, but appeared to be from the reactor core. Another main concern of the TEPCO is the aftermath of the salt from the evaporated sea water which can clog the cooling pipes and weaken the cooling effect.

If the radiation level rises, the government announced to the people that they would all have to evacuate because “there is no immediate likelihood that the plant will stop emitting radioactivity”(Fitzgerald). People have been ordered to stay inside their homes, those who of course are fortunate to still have theirs standing, but are quickly running out of supplies as well as going stir crazy I could imagine. The government said that it could take months of years for evacuees to return (Fitzgerald). The United States is a top consumer of energy, and if we can cut back on our use we wouldn’t have to use nuclear power and avoid future problems around the world.

 

References

Fitzgerald, Brian. “Fukushima update: ‘Situation does not warrant optimism.'”

Green Peace. N.p., 26 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.

<http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/

fukushima-update-situation-does-not-warrant-o/blog/33957/>.

 

The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. “Special Report on the Nuclear

Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.” Nuclear Energy

Institute. INPO, Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nei.org/

resourcesandstats/documentlibrary/safetyandsecurity/reports/

special-report-on-the-nuclear-accident-at-the-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-sta

tion>.

 

“Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster .” Wikipedia . Wikipedia , 23 Jan. 2011.

Web. 23 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster>.