Distributed power is a term used to describe emerging renewable energy enterprises that see economic, social and political advantages in decentralized, grid tied systems or “micro-grid” configurations. Distributed power generation is particularly suitable for the developing world where power reliability is a serious concern.
Today’s macro-grid systems usually produce electricity in plants that have a capacity in the hundreds of megawatts (MW) (the output of many of these is 500 MW or more; about enough to power a small city of a 150,000) utilizing energy from nuclear, natural gas, coal fired and hydro-electric sources, usually far away from cities.

JET Mode of Wind / Hydro Turbine Operation

All my inventions related to the hydro and wind JET turbine applications are based on JET force creating an additional rotating JET torque. It is a radical new solution. Thanks to it the turbine efficiency is increased up to 2 times for both lift and drag devices on the vertical, inclined and horizontal axis hydro / wind rotors of axial and cross flow rotors. All JET augmented turbines are self starting devices at very low flow stream. New invented jet augmented wind turbines are the best economical feasible solution of both stand alone and grid tied generators for the Distributed Power Generation. A comparison of the conventional and newly invented jet wind machines is presented here.

More see at www.tonchev.org/all.html

Photovoltaic / Wind hybrid system

State of Current Grid
Conventional centralized grid systems require a complex distributive network of power lines. High voltage is required to transport electricity over the long distances between power plants and where it is actually used this voltage is too high for most applications. Transformers are needed to "step down" the high voltage electrical load that over making it suitable for household and commercial use. This centralized grid system is not only expensive to maintain, by wasteful as well. Only 30-50 percent of the energy produced by centralized power plants are actually used. Every kilowatt of electrical cooling power produced results in two kilowatts of thermal waste heat produced. Power plants pump tens of thousands of cubic yards of water per day. In a distributed system this energy is used to heat buildings and make hot water.
We have come to see that in relation to sustainability and human effectiveness bigger is not always better. Total losses amount to around up to 50-80 percent in centralized grid systems.

Grid power inefficiencies are many:
1. Conventional power generation plants are about 35-55% efficient (the rest is released into environment often creating problems).
2. Transport losses on high tension wires and substations can amount to 10-30 percent of total power production.
3. End user waste

Power plants have an efficiency range of between 30-60%. Natural gas co-generation plants are in the higher range while coal power plants are in the lower range. The average operational efficiency of a power plant in America is about 35%. At the area of end-use, appliance and electrical powered systems are often not using the most efficient technologies.

Human Induced Climate Change
Human induced global climate change may lead to more extreme weather events adversely affecting the reliability of grid power supplies. According to Contingency Planning, power fluctuations account for 45 percent of data losses and the Electric Policy Institute says these added up to $50 billion in losses in 1998.
During the summer of 03 four outages hit the developed world costing billions including one in the east coast of North America that affected 57 million people. Power outages in the East Coast in the fall of 2003 demonstrated the condition of lines and infrastructure. The price tag to upgrade these systems to handle the increased power demands of a 21st century economy pretty solid case for alternative distributed power micro-grids

Load Pockets
Distributed power is particularly relevant in what are called load pockets. This is where the system is at capacity there but new power supplies cannot easily be delivered because it would mean adding additional lines and infrastructure. The distributed power solution involves installing small scale power plants to add capacity in these load pockets.

The Need for Reliable Power
Modern businesses increasingly operate in a global economy that is technology driven. Global webs of information, capital, and supply chains are increasingly vulnerable to power outages. Downtime due to power supply problems can very costly. HP estimates that a twenty-minute outage costs it 20 million dollars at one of its factories (Peter Asmus “Bring power to the 21st century with Renewable Energies” In Business Jan-Feb/01 P20).
The primary solution in any situation where there is too much demand is first to reduce consumption through effective conservation practices. In many if not most situations constructing distributed energy infrastructures powered by renewables is the cost effective alternative to large scale centralized systems, particularly when environmental impact is considered.

Distributive power produces energy at the site reducing energy transmission losses increasingly reliability, while providing a more environmentally responsible power supply.
When we look at the type of distributed energy production system we see market potential for the reprocessing of organic waste into value added products such as the types of vegetables grown in greenhouses as well as electricity. This involves the anaerobic digestion of food scraps, human waste and industrial and farm byproducts that are otherwise now seen as waste.

Distributed Power in Developing Countries Grid tied systems will often be driven by micropower generating facilties that will be located within local communities and will run off renewables such as solar, wind and biogas. A portion of the development budget will be earmarked to create new enterprises and incubate new sustainable technologies in local regions with consideration to local needs and priorities. Regional power grids will be owned and controlled by municipal utility. The utility raises money to maintain the grid and also offers financing to install renewable energy systems, not only selling but buying power and also subcontracting out grid-based power to merchant power plants. Such a plan provides centralized grid power as a supplement to grid tied distributed or micro-power production in neighborhood power centers. Power funding is broken into three groups
* Power grid and maintenance
* Merchant power
* Micro/distributed power

Distributed Power Solutions and Decentralized Power Grids
Developing countries will save significant infrastructure costs by developing decentralized power generation systems that include micro generators and turbines running on boifuels, photoelectric solar panels and wind generators.

1. Reliable Power: Allied Business Intelligence estimates that losses related to power instability amounted to about 30 billion dollars a year. With Distributed Generation systems such as fuel cells, mechanical batteries and micro-turbines businesses now have access to the more reliable electricity supplies.
2. Capacity Utilization: Instead of building large plants whose capacity will not be fully tapped for years, suppliers will probably find it cheaper to augment central electricity supplies with power from modular fuel-cell units located near the point of consumption.
3. Grid Constraints: Transmission construction has not kept pace with increased consumption. The North American Reliability Council recent reliability assessment concludes that there are not enough cables to sustain increased demand for electricity. Over the next 8 years there are plans for 286,000 MW of additional electrical generation capacity a 31% increase over the 934,000 MW currently installed, but during the same period there is only a 5% increase in the number of circuit miles of transmission line.
4. National Security and Homeland Security: A micro grid strategy says Cambridge Energy Research Associates utilizing distributed power gen-sets is one way to minimize vulnerability to terrorist attacks.
5. Energy independence: Related to national security is energy independence. The fact is that many of the people most enthusiastic for war are the very same people who have been obstructed more alternative and sustainable forms of energy.
6. Deregulation: Deregulation in the electric-utility industry will create opportunities for fuel-cell power plants, micro-turbines and other forms which will reach market years before fuel-cell cars. Fuel cells are estimated to increase production from 40 MW today to 16000 MW in 10 years.
7. Modularity and Scalability: Fuel cell and micro-turbine power plants are modular and therefore scalable. The expandability of these systems means that additional power production capacity need only be purchased when it is actually needed. This means that end users do not have to pay for power capacity they are not using.
There are various technologies that could emerge as the significant decentralized, renewable energy sources that will replace conventional fossil fuel based systems. "We are at a critical point in the industrial age, as the technology to power electric fuel cells is now available for commercial use," says Juniper Elk in the September 2000 Auto-Free Times. "The harmful effects of civilization may be combated by new technology rather than perpetuated by it."
1. Micro-turbines
2. Fuel Cells
3. Solar Photovoltaic (PV panels)
4. Wind
5. Biomass
These technologies are most suitable for use in a distributed power platform where they can easily be located at or close to the point of use. Decentralized grid-tied, distributed power renewable energy systems are well suited for powering sustainable communities and projects.
On these pages you can find many advanced energy solution for urban, industrial, rural and offshore environment.