Today the number of megawatts needed in the country is almost equal to the capacity that is produced, said EPB CEO David Wade. But that need is quickly increasing and EPB is planning ahead for ways to have power available when it is needed in the future.
One reason for the increased need is because of new growth. There are different options that are being considered and used to have power in place.-
One of the newest ways that utilities are using to increase capacity is to go out and buy power from the market. The transmission of power between the generator of the electricity and those who want to buy it is done through interconnections. Because the need for having interconnections is a requirement for the transmission of electric power, the demand to be part of an interconnection is high from utilities and, in some cases, companies get in line as far as three years out. and as a commitment, some utilities are having to pay to keep their place in the interconnection queue.
Another way that EPB is using to position the community for the future of maintaining the power that will be needed is to increase storage capacity and deriving it from different sources. One way will be storing power in batteries. That method has already started at EPB. Large batteries, some with seven and a half megawatts of storage and others that can store 36 megawatts, have already been ordered. It is hoped that they will be in place before the start of the next fiscal year. The battery storage is multi-purpose since reliability can also be increased by switching to the use of the batteries to keep power on during an outage while electricity is being restored.
Timing of energy consumption is important. There may be plenty of capacity, said Mr. Wade, but the timing when it is used may be off. An example is that it is more efficient to charge an electric car in the middle of the night when power costs less. Switching to getting power from the batteries is one way that can help EPB keep costs down. EPB pays TVA more during peak usage times during the day and pays less during times of less demand such as the middle of the night. When the batteries are installed, EPB will switch the source of power to batteries during peak demand times. That will lower the cost of electricity being paid to TVA. Mr. Wade said that plans for efficiency work well when there is a lot of capacity. But costs go up when the capacity goes down.
Where the batteries are located is important too. It is seen as optimum to locate these storage devices where power is already being generated and there is an existing storage facility so that the source of electricity being used can be switched easier.
Saving power by efficiencies is another way to expand capacity. Mr. Wade said EPB will also focus on efficiency and stopping the waste of energy. However, he said that now some waste is designed into a system, citing the example of heat pumps that switch to inefficient auxiliary power when the temperature drops below 25 degrees. Inefficient systems continue to be used in certain cases such as heat pumps because it is cheaper than redesigning them to be efficient down to lower temperatures. However, he said that new heat pumps that are efficient to zero are now being tested. And geothermal energy is viewed as another efficiency that will work with the electricity grid.
President of EPB Energy and Communications business unit Ryan Keel told the board that EPB has a new payment processing system for auto payments, which includes almost 75 percent of EPB customers. It was put into service just this week. The new system offers customers additional payment options to the old ones. Processing fees are not charged to use the new system. Customers will need to go into the portal and re-enroll. Help from EPB is available for the transition if people do not re-enroll.
Another change is the revamp of commercial communication products, said Mr. Keel. He said that Internet products have been redesigned for small businesses so that additional speeds can be added in the areas that need it.