History of the Galvin Electricity Initiative
The Galvin Electricity Initiative was officially launched in 2005, but its genesis dates back to the massive East Coast blackout of August 2003, which left nearly 50 million people without power and inspired former Motorola chief Robert W. Galvin to take action.
As a leader in the Six Sigma movement for quality management, Galvin knew that it was possible to create a system where blackouts do not happen—ever—and that such a system is the most economical in the long run. With innovation, leadership, and focus, perfection is possible, even in something as vast and complex as the U.S. electric power system. This quality transformation is the key to achieving a confidently sustainable economic and environmental, as well as energy, future for our nation.
In the first phase of the project, Galvin and Executive Director Kurt Yeager brought together more than 60 independent experts in power system design and advanced technology and encouraged them to think beyond conventional infrastructure and regulatory issues. Focusing instead on what twenty-first century consumers—both residential and business—want and need from the power system, these experts identified necessary components for creating a system that meets those needs.
The resulting reports define and integrate the existing smart grid technology needed to build such a system, exactly what such a system would look like on both the consumer and the supplier sides, a comprehensive scenario-based analysis of consumer needs, an assessment of potential innovations in electric energy technologies, and functional specifications for achieving the Perfect Power System. The economic benefits alone from this electricity service quality transformation are immediately three to five times the cost, with essentially unlimited upside potential.
The second phase of the Initiative involved creating a detailed engineering and operational blueprint for implementation of the Perfect Power System, as well as business templates to determine how to stimulate widespread entrepreneurial innovation and investment in this grid modernization approach. Following the design completion, the Initiative began evaluating sites to build Perfect Power Community Microgrid Systems, laying the groundwork for a nationwide transformation by proving that perfection and its quality advantages are achievable. The flagship Perfect Power Microgrid System is currently being built for the Illinois Institute of Technology campus in Chicago.
In the process of system development, the Initiative has uncovered policy barriers to true electricity system renewal. In the current phase, the Initiative is sparking transformation in policymaking and electricity regulation. In partnership with citizens, mayors, the business community and other stakeholders, the Initiative developed a set of principles for a consumer-driven electric power system. These Electricity Consumer Principles serve as an end-user "bill of rights" for electricity service that should guide policymaking at the state and federal level. Using these Consumer Principles as a policy framework, the Initiative is now engaged in collaborative efforts to implement policy change in select states, while continuing to design and build models of this electricity system of the future in locations throughout the country.
