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Confidential Ssociates a History of Energy Part I Winter 2014 Luthin Confidential ssociates A History of Energy Part I History of Lighting - Part 1 It wasn’t until the late In the early 1800s, gas M el Brooks’ 2000- 1700’s that European light (initially at less than Inside this issue: year old man used oil lamps (at ~0.3 lu- 1 lumen/watt), used coal torches in his cave, but mens/watt) became gas or natural gas from History of Lighting Part 1 1 today’s lighting is a tad widely available and mines or wells, and was more sophisticated, accepted due to im- relatively common in ur- How to Become A Producer 2 having gone through provements in design ban England. Its use ex- half a dozen stages, and the whaling indus- panded rapidly after the Can Spaceballs Be Shot Out 3 each producing more try’s ability to produce development of the incan- of Earth Tubes? light out of less energy sperm oil. That refined descent gas mantle around i.e., efficacy, than its product burned cleanly, 1890. That device more High (Voltage) Anxiety 3 predecessor. didn’t smell too bad, than doubled the efficacy and was relatively (to 2 lumens/watt) of gas On A Personal Note 4 Torches made of moss cheap compared to lighting, using a filament and animal fat, and commercially-made containing thorium and and the power industry adopted crude oil lamps were candles. cerium, which converted it as a standard. During this the mainstay for indoor more of the gas flame’s period, Nikola Tesla, and oth- lighting until the pro- The Industrial Revolu- heat into white light. Gas ers, demonstrated forms of cessing of animal fat tion in 19th Century lighting then cost about a fluorescent lighting where gases into wax gave us the Europe gave us dynamo quarter of candles and less in a tube glowed when charged candle in roughly 3000 -based electricity and than kerosene. It created a by electricity. Efficacy began to BCE (efficacy: about the first carbon arc great demand that eventu- exceed 20 lumens/watt. It was- 0.1 lumens/watt). That lamps (at ~2-4 lumen/ ally led to the creation of n’t until 1926, however, that the option worked for much watt). They were used the first utilities. Gas light first fluorescent lamp received a of early recorded Euro- mostly in open areas dominated for several patent and not until after World pean history, but during such as parks, street decades (through World War II when commercial fluo- the Islamic Golden Age lighting, and large in- War I, for those having rescents (~60-70 lumens/watt) (roughly 900—1000 dustrial spaces and rail access to it), until electric- began to supplant incandescent. AD), a Persian doctor yards. Arc lights didn’t ity became available, refined kerosene from get much traction in the gradually supplanting With the rapid development of crude oil and used it in US until much later, both gas and kerosene technologies in the postwar era, the first manufactured due to the lack of an lighting. other forms of lighting were oil lamp and the first electric distribution developed, producing the first th street lights in Anda- system. During that As the 20 century ap- diodes emitting visible red light, lusian Cordoba, now century, gas lighting proached, Edison created the Light Emitting Diode (LED) Spain. and kerosene lamps his electric incandescent in 1962. Mercury vapor and dominated. lamp (1.4 lumens/watt), (continued on pg 2). History of Lighting Part I….Continued. metal halides came to mar- fluorescent aka induction ing gas, common in exit competition is the incandes- ket in the late ‘60s (at 50- lighting in 1991; the first signs, essentially bit the cent lamp, which ruled down- 100 lumens/watt), and ceramic metal halide dust even though it used no lights and table lamps for sodium vapor lamps in the (CMH) in 1992; and, in power for illumination. almost a century. Screw-in ‘70s, with efficacies up to 1994, the first T5 fluores- LED units, while still relative- 180. Although more effi- cents and sulfur-based In the 21st century, compe- ly expensive, are quickly sup- cient, several of these light lamps. Efficacies for white tition among sources con- planting Edison’s venerable sources, especially sodium, sources were now routinely tinues. Fluorescent lamps, invention. Through interna- provided light that distort- exceeding 70 and approach- powered by electronic bal- tional competition, govern- ed colors and was far from ing 100. lasts operating in computer- ment regulation, and various white. designed fixtures, are pro- financial incentives, incandes- But the lighting revolution ducing greater efficiency cence is fast becoming the Compact fluorescents with was just getting started. and longevity, giving LEDs “whale oil” of our time. Dur- built-in ballasts came to After almost 30 years in a run for their money. High ing its heyday however, many market in 1981 (50 lu- development, the first phos- -output fluorescents are billions of Edison’s bulbs mens/watt), the first white phor-based blue (and later pushing metal halide aside, were produced and used by high-pressure sodium lamp white) LEDs were seen in just as induction lighting billions of people, making it (the Philips white SON) in 1995. As cost dropped, and competes with LED for the king of indoor lighting for 1985, and the first com- efficacy rapidly improved, street lighting. Efficacies decades. mercially available elec- they began to supplant near 100 are now consid- tronic ballast appeared in sources that had ruled some ered the norm with LED To paraphrase King Louis 1987. The early ‘90s saw types of fixtures for dec- having a theoretical poten- XVI in the History of the an explosion of new and ades. In only a few years, tial exceeding 200. World – Part 1, “It was good ever more efficient light tritium lighting which used to be the King”. sources: electrode-less a slightly radioactive glow- The biggest loser in all this How to Become A Producer (good or bad). This ena- ity pricing in ROS has Greene and Albany Counties I n Mel Brooks’ The bles the customer to re- typically been only a frac- and all of Dutchess),Orange Producers, shady Broad- duce their risks at the sup- tion of that seen in NYC, & Rockland Utilities (serving way impresario Max Bi- plier’s expense. Of course, for reasons best covered in part of Orange and all of alystock learns that, with that expense gets passed a separate article. The ISO Rockland) and NYSEG (parts some creative accounting, along to the customer. zones in the lower Hudson of Putnam and upper he could make more mon- While energy i.e., the Valley (G, H, and I), how- Westchester). ey with a flop than a hit. kWh, is the biggest piece ever, have, according to In a similar reversal of of the pie, each customer some in this debate, had In August 13, 2013, the Fed- apparent logic, some pow- in the NYISO is also their capacity charges eral Energy Regulatory Com- er customers in the lower “tagged” with a demand artificially suppressed by mission approved the Hudson Valley may soon charge, a kW capacity that differentiation. To NYISO’s proposal to create find they could “make level, based on their prior address this situation, a the NCZ, which would signif- more money with a float summer’s peak demand. New Capacity Zone icantly increase the capacity than a fixed”, i.e., taking a That number is then multi- (NCZ) is being created costs, $/kW, for accounts in power deal wherein the plied each month by a $/ that covers zones G, H, I Zones G, H, and I and, to a capacity charge is allowed kW price that may vary by and J . lesser degree, Zone J. to float rather than being locale and the methods For zones G, H and I, a fixed fixed into the overall used by the supplier to Con Edison’s territory price contract may increase price. secure its capacity costs. includes most of zone H by about $.015/kWh i.e., 15 (upper Westchester), zone mills. In Zone J, the average When one buys a fixed The NYISO has generally I (Westchester County increase will be less because power price, the cost of charged capacity based on near or below US Route NYC load already has to buy each component (energy, three zones: New York 287) and zone J. Zone G most of their capacity from capacity, ancillaries, etc.) City (zone J), Long Island covers counties served by more expensive in-City re- is held constant, regard- (zone K) and the Rest of Central Hudson Gas and sources but will likely less of what happens in State (ROS). Since the Electric (parts of Orange, the wholesale market creation of the ISO, capac- Putnam, Sullivan, Ulster, (continued on page 4). Volume XII Issue I Page 2 Factoid: High (Voltage) Anxiety Source: www.nrel.gov/gis/maps.html W e all love the idea of powering America on renewable energy, but a lot of that energy will be coming from sites lacking the high-voltage transmis- sion needed to move it to where it’s needed. DOE's National Renewable Ener- gy Lab (NREL) map web Technical potential site features an overlay sources and assumptions are (see chart to the right) of listed in the slide the existing transmission notes. grid versus the locations of major wind and solar resources. The main take- away: unless a lot of new transmission gets built, the dream of a renewable energy future may remain just a dream. Especially stark is the blue mid- 1 Does not include Alaska or Hawaii section with a huge wind 2 Does not include Hawaii potential but lacking transmission facilities.
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