Smart Loads lead to Smart Grids
Why do we have a power ‘Grid’ at all?
Simple…to be more productive. Energy fuels our industry, our industries fuel our economies. After we saw the first massive spikes in industrial productivity from this new thing called electricity, we were hooked and the ‘Grid’ began. Our post-wattage days have been blissful until now. Now we are seeing limits where none were before. So, what to do.
We apply the same ingenuity and management to Watts as we do to Packets. That is Cisco’s technical approach to what is otherwise a social construct; Green. Reduce Watts, and in turn reduce carbon through Smart Loads. With that, the utilities that provide us with our Watts will be able to use the same technologies used to control the “business” side of energy. There will be a lag but when people talk Smart Grid today it can mean many things. Basic Ethernet connectivity may be one.
If you want to geek out on how things are coming along here at Cisco on energy tech, have a listen to a recent interview I was privileged to provide. Its a discussion with John Gilroy of Federal News Radio 1500AM in Washington, DC.
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John runs a great show and we really engaged on some meaty bits, you can play as a URL or download as a podcast…
Posted by Rob Aldrich at 08:46PM PST
Michael Jun 26, 2009
I’ve read some of the blog posts regarding Richards-Zeta and the future integration with smart grid technology and I have some comments/questions. With the abundance of energy management software currently employed - I do think that Cisco may have some barriers to entry with certain customers due to an (ironically) very traditionally new-technology-wary customer base.
Moving to the control aspect of Cisco BMS interfacing as a smart grid infrastructure I have some questions…
As referenced above, most people familiar with the electrical industry take issue that private specifying engineers, even today - sometimes have issues with analog vs digital metering and control devices due to reliability even in low voltage distribution systems. (I am not one those people BTW)
With respect to control, I am not aware of a critical load application for low voltage distribution systems with load shedding properties that doesn’t use hard wired and finally manual operation as a fail-safe… do you expect “the network” is going to be somewhat of a tough sell? I am just trying to envision where the redundancy comes in? N+1 design? How is power priority factored into the mix? Meaning, I can only assume a smart grid would provide for load shedding in critical situations to keep hospitals, data centers, etc alive… what kind of redundancy is planned to avoid catastrophe? Is power controlled at the utility distribution level causing undervoltage sensing conditions at private facilities - or are the Main disconnects in private service entrance facilities meant to trip on command from the utility?
Finally, I’m curious how relaying and metering is to be enforced at the distribution level? Is it the utility that will add CT’s and relays with communications? Will they have to differentiate what type of entity they provide service to? Who will pay for this? Is there a benefit to even having a private energy management system at that point except to identify critical loads within a private system?
I’m not challenging anyone, I’m just curious the actual plan. Although I realize I these questions may be premature.. Implementation of this would certainly open up a large can of worms security wise… At some point I can imagine a great deal of resistance - but in effect it is not only a good solution, it’s the only solution that makes sense, it’s just a giant hill to climb in an industry built on relationships that notoriously lives a couple decades in the past.
This is great stuff though, and I am interested in hearing more thoughts. There are definitely some real opportunities to break down the status quo with some very precise decisions. I am hoping all of this integration happens as quickly as possible from my own social responsibility perspective.
Cheers!