Just how smart do we have to be?
Energy Collective webinar will tackle this issue in a live webinar ~ October 28, 1 PM EST
Join a panel of experts as they discuss how to modernize the nation's transmission systems.
Register here - registration is free, but you must provide a valid email address in order to access to webinar.
The registration page has a lot of information about the event and what will be discussed and about the panelists. Marc Gunter, an editor at Fortune Magazine, will moderate the session.Congress adds $4 billion for a smarter grid
With $4 billion of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act designated for the “Smart Grid,” or modernization of the nation’s electrical transmission systems, investment has accelerated at a feverish pace in viable projects initiated by utilities, research facilities, and technology companies.
The Smart Grid represents more than a commercial opportunity. It will make possible more efficient and lower cost delivery of power, better informed customers, smart appliances, distributed energy, electric cars and a host of other innovations yet to be invented.
Webinar Topics
In an effort to help our members better understand the policy, investment opportunities and trends swirling around this topic, The Energy Collective is proud to announce the second of our fall panels on energy topics: “Rethinking the Electric Grid."
In addition to fielding any questions from the audience, our expert panel will respond to following questions:
- Where is the leadership for innovation coming from? Utilities? Technology companies?
- What policies are needed at the federal and regional levels to support smart grid deployment?
- How will greater decentralization of the grid change the power distributors' business models?
- What role does FERC need to play, acting in concert with utilities?
- What roles will the customer and customer feedback play in the development of smart grid?
- What technology breakthroughs are needed?
Want to know more?
Check out the Energy Collective special section "rethinking the electrical grid"
A good example is a link to a piece by the Economist which reports
"Information technology can make electricity grids less wasteful and much greener. Businesses have lots of ideas and governments are keen, but obstacles remain."
Smart Grid Video from IEEE
Robin Carey on new social media
Questions?
Caitlin Hinrichs
Community Marketing Manager
Social Media Today LLC
w: 973.763.2829
f: 973-763-2864
caitlin@socialmediatoday.com
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1 comment:
Beware the smart grid.
There are three aspects:
1. Using electronic intellegence to keep power flowing to as many people as possible a long as possible. I think all can agree this is a laudible goal. It is also the one that most often gets hyped.
2. Controlling when and how much energy a consumer can use. This is is part that is not spoken of in glowing terms.
3. Increasing costs for the average consumer who cannot or will not rearrange his life to match energy availability on the grid. Are you up for shutting down your air conditioner on a hot July afternoon because the cost of electricity has increased, a lot?
Going to the link to The Economist in the orignal posting, there is this:
Yet where variable rates have been introduced, they have not always been a success. When they were tried in Seattle a few years ago, most suburbanites liked the idea at first. They duly resisted turning on their dishwashers and so on until 9pm, the magic moment at which the local utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), started to charge less. But the mood quickly soured when it turned out that many households on the “time of use” rate plan actually paid more than ordinary ones. Consumers quit the programme in droves. In November 2002, only 18 months after it was introduced, PSE cancelled it with the backing of regulators.
Following this, there is discussion about consumers resisting extra taxes that might be levied on peak-use energy.
Also, there is brief mention of the potential intrusiveness of energy monitoring. Many years ago I read an article in the IEEE Spectrum magazine where researchers connected a power meter with real time communications to a volunteer's hours. After a while, they we able to figure out what the people living there were doing and where they were in the house simply by watching the changes in power demand as they turned on and off lights and appliances.
Be careful what you wish for!
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