<p> A sustainable world is one in which human needs are met equitably without harm to the environment, and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Electrical energy is one such need, but neither the production nor the utilization are equitable or harmless. Growth of electricity availability and how we use electricity in industrialized nations has established a dichotomy between usage and sustainability. This dichotomy is best illuminated by the current "just-in-time" approach where excessive electricity generation capacity is installed to be able to instantaneously meet load from consumers at all times. Today in the United States, electricity generation capacity is approximately 3.73 kW per person versus 3.15 kW per person in 2002. [1] [2] At this magnitude of installed capacity the entire world would need approximately 25.5 TW of generation or approximately 12,250 Hoover Dams today and must add 766 MW of capacity every day. [3] This unsustainable effect is further exacerbated by the fact that consumers do not have a strong vested incentive to keep electricity generation sustainable because the producers shoulder the burden of instantaneously meeting demand. </p><p> What is needed are paradigms to make these resources economically sustainable. The opportunity provided by the smart-grid is lost if we just automate existing paradigms, hence it is new paradigms that should be enabled by the smart-grid. This dissertation examines a new paradigm which shifts the problem towards `energy delivery' rather than `power delivery' for economic sustainability. The shift from a just in time power model to an energy delivery represents a fundamental change in approach to the research happening today.</p><p> The energy delivery paradigm introduces the concept of a producer providing electrical energy to a system at a negotiated cost and within power limits, leaving the issue of balancing instantaneous power to the consumer, which has overall control on its demand and power requirements. This paradigm has potential to alter the current technical, market, and regulatory problem in electrical energy production and move the economic landscape toward electrical energy production for a more sustainable, reliable, and efficient electrical energy system. This dissertation examines concepts along the path of energy delivery which crosses many fields including power systems, data communications, controls, electric markets, and public utility regulation ultimately proposing a mathematical formulation and solution. The dissertation then shifts to examining potential physical interpretations of the formulation and solution and impacts to different fields within the energy paradigm.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3582400 |
| Date | 12 March 2015 |
| Creators | Bukowski, Stephen A. |
| Publisher | New Mexico State University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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