Via Slashdot:
“On Monday, the Obama administration announced the next steps that the US will take to build its 21st century electric grid, and Information Technology is expected to play a big part in the plans. The White House hosted a 90-minute media event called ‘Building the 21st Century Electric Grid’ and is releasing a new report on what it will take for lawmakers and the private sector to come together to solve this aspect of the energy challenge.”
Here’s more from the official White House statement:
“Along with the announcement of new public and private initiatives aimed at building a smarter, expanded grid and empowering consumers, the Cabinet-level National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) will release a new report: ‘A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid.’ This policy framework charts a collaborative path forward for applying digital information or ’smart grid’ technologies to the nation’s electricity infrastructure to facilitate the integration of renewable sources of power into the grid; help accommodate the growing number of electric vehicles; help avoid blackouts and restore power quicker when outages occur; and reduce the need for new power plants.”
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Really, I pity future generations.
smart grid = energy rationing
and who is going to pay for it? send me your guesses at howtoscrew@theconsumer.com
Oh goodie. More two-way wireless connections to control and monitor the grid! And at the same time, NASA is telling us we need to make the grid LESS vulnerable to EMP from the sun, and Leon Panetta is telling us we need to make the grid LESS vulnerable to international hackers.
The way to make the grid LESS vulnerable is to get rid of all computerized controls and decentralize, not to add more wireless control points and centralize.
But we won’t decentralize, because the present arrangement makes it possible to securitize electric power. Enron and all that. If we went back to the old arrangement with each city running its own power plant, there would be no way for Wall Street to manipulate the system. Profits would remain in each city, and Wall Street would be unable to, ahem, short the circuit.
“…and reduce the need for new power plants.”
Does this signify the official death of the Green Dream where no additional power generation is required, we can get along just fine with economizing and efficiency improvements? Or is this more of the Green Theme where the “new power plants” are only “Renewable!” replacements that merely displace existing fossil fuel (and nuclear?) generation without the unnecessary(!) addition of more capacity?
Sounds like Obama and the dems have found a solid industry from which to build their more base…thousands upon thousands of newly created union jobs which will be both government and private–but still union–in order to build this new fangled grid, to allow people to buy electric cars at everyone else’s expense, and—-this is the best of all—-they are going to reduce our need for more power plants………how?………Obama is going to change physics, because he stopped the oceans from rising, and we will all then be able to get two watts where only one exists!!!!!!
No doubt it will all be managed with Windoze SG1.
I always feel that when they say a process will ’empower the consumer’ what they really mean is that it will allow them to control the consumer. It usually ends up with the consumer having less power, not more.
Aaaah buzzwords, don’t you just love them?
There’s absolutely no way Obama is going to survive this next election, were he to spend even TWO billion dollars trying to hornswoggle people to vote for him again. We’ve all had about as much “hopey/changey” con-artistry as we can take. The American public will not be so easily duped next time around. What he’s offering we don’t want.
He hasn’t created world peace yet.
What do you need a grid for when you are killing power production?
What about power plants that are we already have, and need? Taking power plants offline that the nation needs, and which is the cheapest. Even higher energy prices are in the near future.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0612-rates-20110611,0,2195993,full.story
See Germany – the Green Dream is dead. They recently announced a knee jerk reaction to Japan and vowed to close all of their nuclear plants early; but guess what will replace them? Nat Gas and Coal, that’s all they’ve got that can work. Even with all of their work on solar, they know they don’t dare rely on it. Back to Fossil Fuels. Wait, what about Global Warming? Oh never mind.
Germany gives us the template for how the Green Dream will die – Germany is claiming all of these fossil fuel plants will only be a “bridge” until renewable power is ready. What they don’t say is that it will be decades, if ever, til the time that will happen.
Now do I think new, better, energy providing techniques will come along? Of course! Technology marches on, and I’m sure that by 2050 or 2060, there will be all kinds of awesome that we can’t even imagine. THAT’S WHAT SUPPORTERS OF FOSSIL FUELS HAVE ALWAYS SAID!!! Use Fossil fuels NOW, and use them as a bridge to the future. Of course, that bridge is going to take 40 or 50 years to cross.
The reason we always took that position is that it’s the only logical course of action based on a rational assessment of our situation. It’s rather comforting to see that even some of the Greens biggest German supporters are getting beaten into that position by reality.
SmartGrid aim’s to reduce peak demand loads causing stress on power infrastructure. Electrical utility providers must design for demand, not consumption. Designing for peak demand is costly and wasteful.
Think of it like our roads. They work fine 90% of the time but during peak hour they do not cope well. The same is true with electricity. During peak electrical use periods (lunch time, dinner time) the electrical grid suffers huge stress. Add to the problem an ageing electrical grid.
A SmartGrid is a much more cost effective way to manage electrical use. The alternative is a massive replace/upgrade of all electrical infrastructure which will hit the pocket much harder.
Please learn the difference between electrical demand and electrical consumption. Get educated guys.
The smartest grid we could design would be a tall iron grid that completely encircles DC.
“Along with the announcement of new public and private initiatives aimed at building a smarter, expanded grid and empowering consumers ….”
I got as far as “empowering consumers” when the taurocoprolitic alarm sounded. This phrase is the NewSpeak code for “controlling the serfs”. When it is hot the Super Grid will shut off your air conditioning; when it is cold, off goes your heating.
The Super Grid decides who gets the electricity, it will be those who have got the power.
The future looks dark.
Dylan
Is that smart grid anything like the smart meters that have been inflicted upon consumers, so that the ruling elite can turn off any section of “consumers” when it suits them. Visions of big brother deciding which group of voters of least consequence can do without power?
Its hard to electrically demand anything when your power is remotely shut off, that seems to effectively deal with consumption – the devil is in the detail, or is this another scheme that one is not allowed to examine that detail until it becomes law!!
“…future generations”.
Ain’t gonna be no “future generations”.
That’s the point. rubbing two sticks and stuff.
Oh. Wait. did they have fire in the stone age?
President Obama. He speak with forked tongue.
Sign up to the smart grid concept with smart metering and you will be the first to have your power switched off in a rolling blackout, because they don’t want to pay for standby capacity for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.
Dylan says:
June 14, 2011 at 4:47 am
I browsed through the document, and on the surface it looks OK. As a consumer, I would especially be interested in technologies which permit me to monitor and control my own energy usage, so as to reduce my utility costs.
However, it seems to me that permitting monitoring and control of electricity through digital means would make it ripe for hacking. We can’t even secure our government computers and data – what would prevent an enemy from writing a “virus” which would trigger massive power failures nationwide?
help accommodate the growing number of electric vehicles;
http://www.greenfleetmagazine.com/news/50385/hybrid-and-electric-vehicle-sales-drop-in-may
The number will peak soon – once all the greener than you townies have tried them then gone onto another fad. Anyone that lives anywhere that is slightly remote will not want an electric car – you cannot walk to get a gallon of power if the battery fails 20 miles outside town.
Its the line at the top of the poster/flyer/picture that tickles me.. “The Smart Grid Can Deliver”
Who, exactly, are they trying to convince.. us or themselves? Something about it doesn’t ring true.
Dylan above makes some valid points but, what the Smart Grid is doing is removing redundancy – its taking the grid the same way as everything else has gone. Everything now is delivered on a ‘Just in Time’ basis. All well and good but it makes for a very fragile supply chain where upon one broken link instantly brings the entire thing crashing down. A good recent example was when (here in the UK), the petrol tanker drivers went on strike. Within 3 days the country had just about stopped. No-one, nowhere kept any reserve capacity.
Consider going for an airplane ride. Airplanes are riddled with ‘redundancy’, if one system fails another takes over. How would anyone feel if the aircraft only had one system, would you fly in it? The Shuttle has/had, as far as I know, 5 levels of redundancy in its Fly-by-Wire systems.
Similarly, the cars that we (most of us) drive, Why do we insist on/buy cars with 100HP+ engines when 20HP would get us to the legal speed limit? Is ‘safety’ not the usual response when asked to justify ourselves?
Is ‘The Smart Grid not removing that ‘safety factor’?
Translation of White House statement:
This initiative lays the groundwork to transition modern western countries into backward third world economies. The NSTC will release a new report filled with double speak, non-specific goals, and unverifiable objectives in a high level technical format only the authors can understand. Control of the population will be achieved through a digital system based on the digital concept of an on-off switch. Cooperative people will find themselves in the ‘on’ position while uncooperative trouble makers will be in the ‘off’ position.
@ur momisugly Dylan
“A SmartGrid is a much more cost effective way to manage electrical use. The alternative is a massive replace/upgrade of all electrical infrastructure which will hit the pocket much harder.”
1) The SmartGrid IS a massive replace/upgrade of all electrical infrastructure
2) The SmartGrid WILL hit the pocket much harder
The upshot of the smart grid is micromanagement of the end user, with attendant and profound implications.
Ordinary consumers have already discovered that with the new “smart meter” system, the day after one’s bill is due and hasn’t yet been paid, the 10- day cutoff notice arrives in email. (Don’t ask me how I know this.)
There are those who will immediately say “well, pay your bill on time”, but what an irritating affront.
Not having tested the Utility’s resolve, I’m sure the 10th day would witness remote termination of services.
As for efficiency, “smart grid” away, but the grid will only be third- world reliable with no power input.