Old Wizard

Six Myths About Smart Grid

Wireless meter reading has been around since the mid nineties. We helped train folks on maitenance for Niagra Mohawk. It's a big leap from the simple remote and passive reading of meters to positive instantaneous control and central decision making for a large interconnected grid. These measures are great sounding, but practically speaking they both don't solve the country's negative operating cash flow, and are not substitutes for a comprehensive energy plan that can be implemented with affordable cost in the next 5 to ten years. With the country's current account[operating cash flow] approaching a negative trillion a year and our borrowing another trillion a year to fund our domestic deficit, we cannot wait for another 15 to 20 years to solve the economic and strategic issues presented by our dependency on foreign producers of energy and sustain the dearth of new job creation spawned by the purchase of more of the things we use every day from china and other developing countries. An energy plan that uses natural gas for transportation, an energy source we have in abundance, would provide a near term job stimulus that would all but rescue our domestic car industry, reduce our negative cash flow,and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This could be accomplished in the short term[5to 7] years. Investment in alternate energy, usage efficiencies and nuclear as well as in high energy,quick charging, safe batteries and intermediate storage mechanisms for wind and solarshould be made in parallel and large scale implementaion could be planned for 7 to 15 years out, Clean coal, tidal electrical generation could be brought on as they are perfected. As I said a comprehensive energy plan that has significant gov. funded impetus is needed that addresses the economic, job creation, and strategic issues as well as pollution is required and it's not pie-in-the-sky rhetoric with no urgency that is discernable in action is needed.

Six Myths About Smart Grid

I don't know how to trust someone who can't properly convert euros to dollars with anything remotely technical, let alone the complex issues both technical and economic surrounding the smart grid. First the advocates of this solution were part of the Obama so called technical advidory team and included general electric, ibm and several other companies that have a vested interest in receiving large amounts of gov. contracts to create new business for their products. Of itself, this wouldn't be bad, if it was also in the public interest. That is the real question. Without a comprehensive energy plan articulated by the Obama administration, it is impossible to evaluate the investment in "smart grid" in terms of the public's benefit. For example, if the administration succeeds in its strategy to drive the public to a large number of electric cars how much of the off peak capacity would be required. Smart grid should also define some terms like what's its definition, whose smarts, what overides of the central control functions do individuals,hospitals and unforeseen events have and what are the cost penalties,etc. Since I know that the control function that would control a national interconnected grid does not exist and that regional failures can still affect large interconnected grids like the northeast, I don't believe any company now knows how do derive such a function.