There are five common ways to justify alternate energy projects. The importance of these justifications changes from project to project and in some cases, one justification is all that is required. The SCGCS method includes Safety, Convenience, Green, Cost, and Security. When building business cases for projects, we usually define each of these terms as they serve as buckets for assuring consideration of the perspectives needed for the project.
Let's see what the general cases are. For example, Safety may refer to the need to reduce line noise or to protect electronic equipment from surges caused by other equipment or machinery. Convenience may refer to the remoteness of the project site or to the luxury that might be added to a home by solar-powered lighting in areas that electrical cables can't easily penetrate. Green may refer to any number of environmental concerns that the consumer is trying to address. Examples would be reducing the family carbon footprint, providing offsets for greenhouse gases created in other parts of their lives or simply the consumer's lifestyle choice. Costs are the most quantifiable justifications but consumer interests can change the kinds of quantities that are examined. For example, the current bureaucracy involved in the selling of energy to utilities often leads consumers to choose energy options to minimize their energy bill. Security may focus on the benefits of distributed generation. This article deals with the Security factor.
Security is usually an issue raised by customers in their initial interest in a renewable energy project. Often consumers decide that their energy project adds to their security because the project is under their control. They are right and they soon think of other security considerations. For example, alternate energy projects may provide a backup supply. Their security increases by assuring available power if there are problems in the public electrical grid. Once consumers consider this, they invariably make the next security point. If they are protected from problems in the grid, then the grid is less stressed as well. One client painted a wonderful word picture by describing thousands of rooftop installations in her imagination. Each home was wired to generate some of its own power and would come on line with the coming of dawn and similarly shut down with dusk. A very pastoral image if you consider how our ancestors also arranged their lives with the rising and setting of the sun. Another security issue often raised is the increased efficiency of distributed generation due to reduced transmission loss. This is a good point and an extremely complicated one. The cost efficiency of a megaproject power plant may offset the loss in transmitting the power to your local substation. If the heat from the generation process is being used in another industrial process this may add to the efficiency of the process. Of course, the consumer pays those costs whether the process is efficient or not. Usually the utility has more protection than consumers have.
So we see that Security can be a consideration in an alternate energy project for many reasons. Consumer control may be the issue. Power supply security may be important. Improving service and reducing costs may have the most current significance. We get a daily bombardment of concerns over funding new or upgraded infrastructure elements. And of course, many people want to avoid the dangers in the hundreds of miles between the power plant and their freezer.
