Dual Grid Project : Hourly Matching

Dual Grid :Overview

D-Sharing invented a dual-grid approach to develop a distributed renewable energy power system in line with the newly coming GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, which is the improvement of temporal and geographic granularity in both location and market criteria.

While maintaining the same amount of electricity supply and demand, including thermal power generation, in the existing power transmission and distribution network (real grid), the limited number of suppliers and consumers in the same grid can (i) voluntarily time-shift supply and demand for hourly matching and (ii) trade EAC within the local community. The "dual-grid" (fusion of real and virtual grids) will be developed to achieve simultaneous supply and demand.

Government Nudge Pilot Project

The Dual Grid is enabled by acquiring half-hourly electricity consumption remotely, automatically, and in real time from 70 million smart meters already installed at each demand location, as well as power generation data including prosumers.

In Japan, data access to third parties was opened in October 2023, and D-Shaing team has already started projects using this service.

In cooperation of Shiojiri City in Nagano Prefecture and others, the Dual-grid project is being conducts, centered on the Shinshu region and covering the entire Chubu Electric Power Company service area, as well as the Tohoku region and elsewhere is also under consideration.

Paradigm Shift: From Demand Pull to Demand Push

The dual grid is a paradigm shift from the conventional demand-pull approach to a demand-push approach for developing distributed solar energy-based power system.

In the past, a demand-pull approach was taken in which thermal power plants were first built to stimulate demand for electricity, followed by the construction of solar power plants to stimulate demand for renewable energy.

However, this approach tended to create a mismatch between supply and demand because power plants were built first without being able to precisely predict when and how much demand would be generated. This is a serious problem against mainstreaming renewable energy generation, which has a large amplitude of "power generation," and as a result is likely to lead to frequent output control.

Therefore, we developed a method to gradually introduce solar power generation in a reasonable manner and retire thermal power plants on the assumption that the existing power system is built mainly on thermal power generation, while first stimulating demand and trying to match supply and demand by time and location.

Step1: Mutual time-shift (Location-based Approach)

The construction of a dual grid involves the following steps.

The performance of each consumer's daytime time shift is evaluated using the consumer's period average emission factor. Evaluation methods could include comparison of the absolute value and reduction range of the coefficient with past results, comparison with AI predictions, and comparison with standard values, average values, and others.

If relevant, a method similar to energy saving carbon credit trading can be used to value the amount below the standard and encourage trading with consumers who exceed the standard. This would encourage daytime charging of EVs in particular and contribute to load leveling.

On the other hand, as a flip side of this, the Grid half-hourly CO2 emission factor will be made visible to power generators, including prosumers, as an indicator to promote a time shift (night shift) of power generation to a time when the ratio of renewable energy is low and the emission coefficient by transmission network time zone is high. This is also true for recharging storage batteries, and nighttime discharge is encouraged.

The night time shift performance of each generator is evaluated using the supplier period average emission (avoidance) coefficient. Evaluation methods could include comparison of the absolute value and reduction range of the factor with past performance, comparison with AI predictions, and comparison with standard values, average values, and others.

Depending on the actual results, monetary incentives in the form of points, etc., or non-monetary incentives in the form of a nudge model, can be given to encourage behavior change.

In some cases, a method such as emissions trading could be considered, in which the amount above the standard is valued and trades with generators below the standard are encouraged. Using this methodology, the profitability of investment in storage batteries will be improved for achieving storage parity, as the introduction of storage batteries can monetize not only the price gap in the electricity market, but also the emission factor gap to be evaluated.

With this system, real-time feedback of not only one's own score but also that of the entire grid will make the results of individual and community-wide environmentally conscious actions visible, and the Japan style nudge model "setting a common goal and working together to achieve it, while checking progress together," will work in other countries. The nudge model, which appeals to sociality and altruism based on social capital, which is strong in Japan, is considered promising.

Another promising nudge model is one in which groups are formed among community members (consumers, prosumers, or a mixture of the two) and gamified through competition based on the degree of achievement within the group and rankings among the groups.

The above is based on the location criteria of the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance.

Step 2: Hourly Matching Transactions (Market Criteria)

The next step is hourly matching trading of renewable energy values.

As Electricity is normally traded separately from EAC, the first step is to induce hourly matching trading of the proposed bundled renewable energy certificates.

Afterwards, it will stimulate the hourly matching of bundled renewable energy certificates or renewable energy electricity itself.

Due to the nature of the electricity system, those in a region have been forced to accept uniform service by the same electricity system. However, in the dual-grid system, participation and choice in the virtual grid is left to the free will of the individual, which is also consistent with the nudge principle.

Way Forward

The GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance places the guarantee of additionality on the table for discussion. In this case, a proposal to make the freshness of power source operation a condition, especially to stimulate new investment, is being considered. For example, it may also be discussed to quantitatively evaluate social and environmental impacts from the perspective of landscape protection and disaster prevention, and to calculate the above emission factors only for power plants that meet the criteria, and to conduct trading the following is a brief overview of the discussion on the issue.

Digital technology have made it possible to precisely assess not only the quantity but also the quality of renewable energy. By visualizing the attributes of power plants and their relationship with consumers, it is possible to improve WTP based on long-term trust between consumers and suppliers (paying an amount on top of the normal purchase price to local anonymous or explicitly named generators for their patronage or support) or to lower WTS (paying an amount on top of the normal purchase price to local anonymous or apparent demanders, a discount from the normal sales price) could also be effective.

In other words. From the "any renewable energy" phase, as in the discussion of the revision of the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, "When and where was the electricity generated?" becomes important, and furthermore, "Who generated the electricity and how?" This will lead to a shift from commodity to differentiated products and branding of renewable electricity, and the commercialization of distributed renewable energy systems, which are inferior to large-scale renewable energy in terms of cost advantage, without the efficiency of scale.

This could be a tool to resolve the disincentive to local decarbonization caused by weak trust due to "faceless generators.

It has been a long time since the shift in consumers' mindsets from "consumption of things" to "consumption of things," but it is possible to sublimate "consumption of electricity as a good" to "consumption of relationships," such as "working together to overcome difficulties and share the joy of achievement," by taking advantage of the special characteristics of "renewable energy electricity," a good that requires consistency in time and geography. We can also look forward to the possibility of sublimating "consumption as a good of power" into "consumption of relationships.

In this way, time-shifting (location-based) and hourly matching transactions (market-based) will be combined to complete a microgrid with 100% local renewable energy self-sufficiency in all time zones.

In collaboration with international organizations, e.g., Asian Development Bank Institute, UN 24/7C, Energy Tag, we are working together for mainstreaming this approach to emerging countries in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

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