[Music plays] Today we are going to talk about
smart grid and energy of our nation as well
as security, cyber security
and infrastructure security.
When we think about the grid, the North American
grid is the greatest achievement of engineering
in the twentieth century, according to
the national academy of engineering.
It underpins our economy, our quality of life
and everything we use depends on reliable,
disturbance free affordable electricity.
However, this whole system from end
to end has a total system efficiency
of only about forty-three percent.
It means we lose, we waste, about fifty-six
percent of our energy either at the production,
or during transfer or at the end use.
Kilowatts upon kilowatts of power that we
generate, predominantly by burning fossil fuels,
gets lost in our nations
electric transmission system.
However, U of M professor Massoud Amin,
says that doesn't have to be the case.
Through his work and the research of other
experts, many of them at the University
of Minnesota, Amin is proposing
a switch to a smart electric grid
that includes our household appliances, how
power plants operate, even the cars we drive.
It's going to require a much larger, high
voltage retrofitting of the system, of the grid,
with a high voltage direct
current DC power lines,
to enable this system for
the twenty-first century.
New power lines are only one part of the
equation, Amin proposes a four step approach
to redefining the world creates,
transports and uses its power
and the first step is a better backbone.
In other words, improved electric
infrastructure or power lines.
Next is power generated from greener renewable
sources such as solar wind and biomass,
the third step includes breaking
away from foreign oil
and instead using the electricity we're
producing from green sources to power our cars.
And finally, improving overall efficiency by
using highly efficient appliances in our homes
and in this case by using cars
that operate more efficiently.
When you look at fuel cycle efficiency, the
current, the same barrel of oil that goes
through refineries, goes through
a traditional vehicle gives you
about sixteen hundred miles per barrel of oil,
fourteen hundred to sixteen hundred miles
per barrel of oil going through refineries,
with the efficiency that we have.
The same barrel of oil, if you put it through
electricity, but put it through a plug
in vehicle, hybrid vehicle, would give
you about twenty-three hundred miles.
So right there you're getting a
thirty-five to forty percent increase
in efficiency using the same fuel source.
Let's run Amin's car example
through the four steps.
First you have better, more reliable electric
infrastructure to transport energy to your home
where you plug your car in, that electricity is
generated by clean sources, you're getting away
from fossil fuels because you're using
clean electric energy to power your car,
and unlike gas, which Amin says is
less than twenty percent efficient,
you're using the highly efficient
electricity coming from those power lines.
The key to making the smart grid a
success, is integrating everything
into the smart grid the same way
we just did with the family car.
When you think about cities such as Minneapolis,
to transform this city into smart grid city,
retrofitting buildings with the sensors
and communications devices with sensors
that are smart and connecting the whole system
that is secure, provides the electricity,
clean electricity, with the price an affordable
price and with the ability to engage customers.
[Music plays]