Urban energy density

Interesting and impressive analysis.

http://theenergycollective.com/robertwilson190/257481/why-power-density-matters

Who’s Watching? Privacy Concerns Persist as Smart Meters Roll Out

Christina Nunez

For National Geographic News

December 12, 2012

Energy consultant Craig Miller, who spends much of his time working to make the smart grid a reality, got a jolt when he mentioned his work to a new acquaintance. The man, who happened to be a lineman at a Pennsylvania utility, responded earnestly:  "Smart meters are a plot by Obama to spy on us."

The encounter was a disheartening sign of the challenge ahead for proponents of the smart grid, who say that the technology can help the industry meet power demand, fix problems faster, and help consumers lower their electricity bills. Advocates of such a 21st-century grid are learning that they need to take privacy concerns seriously. Though smart meters are not, in fact, a domestic espionage scheme, they do raise questions: In a world where households start talking with the power grid, what exactly will be revealed? And who will be listening? 

The term "smart grid" encompasses an array of technologies that can be implemented at various points along the line of transmission from power plant to electricity user, but for many consumers, it is symbolized by one thing: the smart meter.  A majority of U.S. states have begun deploying the wireless meters, which can send electricity usage information from a household back to the utility remotely at frequent intervals. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, more than 36 million smart meters were installed across the nation as of August 2012, covering about a quarter of all electrical customers. In the European Union, only 10 percent of households have smart meters but they are being deployed rapidly to meet an EU mandate that the technology reach 80 percent of households by 2020.

Because smart meters can provide real-time readings of household energy use instead of the familiar monthly figures most customers now see in their electric bills, the devices offer a new opportunity for consumers to learn more about their own power use and save money. But the ability to track a household's energy use multiple times a day also presents some unsettling possibilities. In theory, the information collected by smart meters could reveal how many people live in a home, their daily routines, changes in those routines, what types of electronic equipment are in the home, and other details. "It's not hard to imagine a divorce lawyer subpoenaing this information, an insurance company interpreting the data in a way that allows it to penalize customers, or criminals intercepting the information to plan a burglary," the private nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation noted in a blog post about smart meters. 

The European Union's data protection watchdog warned earlier this year that smart meters, while bringing significant potential benefits, also could be used track whether families "are away on holiday or at work, if someone uses a specific medical device or a baby-monitor, how they like to spend their free time and so on." The European Data Protection Supervisor urged that member states provide the public with more information on how the data is being handled. 

A State-by-State Effort

As with many of the rules governing utility operations, regulations to address privacy concerns in the United States are currently embedded in a patchwork of state laws and public utility commission policy.  Most experts point to California as a leader: Last year, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted rules governing access to, and usage of, customer data. The state has also passed legislation that requires utilities to obtain the customer's consent for release of their information to any third party. The CPUC was involved in producing a comprehensive report on privacy with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that summarizes, often in chilling detail, the many ways in which privacy breaches could occur on the smart grid, and recommends best practices for preventing those breaches. "As Smart Grid implementations collect more granular, detailed, and potentially personal information, this information may reveal business activities, manufacturing procedures, and personal activities in a given location," the NIST report said.

George Arnold, national coordinator for smart grid interoperability at NIST, points out that many of these privacy and security issues have been dealt with in the health care and telecommunications sectors, for example. "Protecting the privacy of the information [on the smart grid] has been taken very seriously. . . . I think it's a good news story that policymakers recognize the importance, and both policy and technical tools are well in hand to deal with this," Arnold said. 

But no existing federal or state laws can be counted on to protect consumers' utility data as smart meters are rolled out across the country. At least one utility in California argued early on that it was subject to a number of existing laws that would address privacy concerns, according to Jim Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology, which worked with the CPUC on its privacy framework. However, Dempsey's group found that no single law provided a clear answer regarding utility data, and that a new set of rules was necessary. "Almost every state has some kind of [privacy] law already," Dempsey said. "But the point is, those laws predate the smart grid, and they do not really account for the complexity of the smart-grid ecosystem."

With other states—including Colorado, Maine, and Texas—now formulating policy on smart meters, a consensus is emerging. Jules Polonetsky of the Future of Privacy Forum, which advocates for responsible handling of consumer data, says there is general agreement that utilities should have rules that govern how they can use smart meter data, and that a customer should be able to know and have access to the data being collected. Still, Polonetsky points out that as energy-saving applications and devices (such as the Nest wireless thermostat) proliferate, state privacy frameworks may have limited power. Utility sharing of data is restricted, but "some device that I buy and I activate may not be subject to utility regulations," Polonetsky said. His organization has introduced a privacy seal for companies that handle smart-grid data, with the goal of highlighting companies that are being proactive about privacy.

Resistance to smart meters in some areas, though confined to a small fraction of utility customers, has been vociferous enough that a handful of communities have declared moratoriums on installations. The city of Ojai, California, for example, declared such a moratorium in May, though it is effectively unenforceable. In Texas, one woman pulled a gun on a utility employee who was trying to install a smart meter. Beyond privacy issues, many smart-meter opponents cite fear of exposure to radio frequency waves, even though radio frequency exposure from smart meters falls "substantially below the protective limits set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the general public," according to a study from the Electric Power Research Institute, the nonprofit research organization funded by the electric power industry. 

Some states, including California and Maine, which has the highest penetration rate in the country for advanced meters, have allowed residents to opt out of smart-meter installation. So far, few customers have done so: In California, according to Chris Villarreal of the CPUC, the opt-out rate was less than half of one percent. The Texas Public Utility Commission is currently weighing whether or not to allow customers to opt out.

Miller, the energy consultant, has been working on a $68 million effort partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to implement smart-grid technology with rural electric cooperatives. He said many of the concerns about smart meter privacy run counter to how utilities actually operate. "The utilities go through all kinds of effort to reduce the amount of information they get," he said. "They see no advantage [in] collecting data with no operational value. If the data did not allow you [as a utility] to make a better decision about the operation of your grid, then there's no reason for a utility to collect it, and they won't."

High Ambitions, Low Public Awareness

Protecting homeowner data from interested outsiders will be crucial for the electric industry as it seeks customer buy-in on the smart grid, but the real challenge may lie in boosting the interest of homeowners themselves. "Our research shows that consumers generally overwhelmingly are unaware of the smart grid [and smart meters] and don't even know what those terms mean," said Patty Durand, executive director of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC), a nonprofit dedicated to consumer education about the smart grid.

In most cases, the utility notifies the customer that the smart meter is coming, swaps in the new meter, and recovers the cost of deployment through a slight rate adjustment, so a homeowner may have little involvement in the installation process. That decreases the likelihood that a homeowner will understand what the smart meter does or how it is beneficial. 

"For the longest time, the relationship between the utility and the customer has been, 'Here's the power and you can pay for it'," said Villarreal of the CPUC. "Now with smart grid and smart meters, we're asking the customers to get more involved and providing them with a lot more information, and now they're starting to ask questions."

Villarreal said that not all utilities have been quick to embrace a world that demands more of a dialogue with customers. In response to the notion of posting a privacy policy, one utility representative from another part of the country told him, " 'We don't want to do that, because we don't want customers calling us and asking us questions about it.' That's not a very proactive response to working with your customers. You're probably just raising the ire of customers more than solving the problem," he said.

California's public utilities have learned to employ robust communication strategies for smart-meter rollouts. San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) sent out at least five notifications to customers leading up to installations. "I think that really helped, because it wasn't like it was somebody knocking on the door," said Caroline Winn, SDG&E's vice president of customer services and chief customer privacy officer. "People weren't surprised to get the smart meter when we installed them."

While a combination of proactive communication and opt-out policies can help prevent customer confusion and minimize backlash against smart-meter rollouts, utilities have the long-term task of making sure that they add value for both customers and themselves. Some benefits involve little or no customer engagement: Smart meters can tell utilities, for example, when outages occur and help generate outage maps for customers (in the analog days, the utility didn't know about an outage unless a customer called).

Other aspects of smart meters involve more attention from a household. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which has installed 9.1 million smart meters across northern and central California at a total cost of $2.2 billion, has experimented with a variety of methods for getting customers more interested in their data. "We deploy reporting with your bill that shows you your usage compared to your neighbor's, and that's highly motivating for some people," said PG&E Chief Information Officer Karen Austin.

PG&E's other programs include rate incentives for energy conservation during peak times, text messages that alert customers when their electricity usage crosses into a new pricing tier, and participation in the Green Button Initiative, which allows people to download their energy-usage information in a standardized format. The goal is to create a level of engagement with energy-usage data among consumers that has barely existed before. Ultimately, the hope is that when consumers see how much energy they use, they can try to use less.

"The utilities have been challenged with not properly educating consumers and not understanding who their consumers are, because they've never had to," said Durand of the SGCC. "In the past, it's been a one-way relationship . . . but those days are over." 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/12/121212-smart-meter-privacy/

Sandy and the smart grid: who won?

Post-mortem premature, as recovery continues

Phil Carson | Nov 18, 2012

Intelligent Utility Daily

If you're thinking I'm writing too much on Hurricane Sandy and the grid, you've got it backwards: the conversation is just beginning. Though a post-mortem on utility performance and the smart grid's role, if any, is premature, we can outline a few issues.

(You may be informed and/or amused by my posts last week, which included: "Hurricane Sandy: Testing Grid Assumptions," "After Storm, Power Sector at Crossroads," "Sandy: The Power Sector's 9/11," "Grid Design, Resiliency and Power at the Edge" and "Utilities and Us: Toward an Energy `Ecosystem.'")

Hurricane Sandy delivered an unprecedented physical assault on Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern utilities and not just the power sector. The conversation now developing, as utilities report to regulators and stakeholders assess the event and utilities' performances, will encompass energy fuels from natural gas to nuclear, and it will include telecom and water. Power is a big part of the picture and an enabler for other services such as drinking water, heating/cooling and communications, but let's keep in context. 

Those assessments will weigh preparation and planning, infrastructure health, the role of technology, people and processes. Do business continuity plans need a reset in the face of extreme weather? Should additional funds and efforts be expended to harden infrastructure and improve resiliency? Do end-use customers bear some responsibility for preparations and resilience in anticipation of extended outages after a massive storm?  

In the power sector, one question is: did smart grid technology aid in preparation, response and recovery from the hurricane? Another question: is the first question a fair one?

The short answer, taking the second first, is: of course! Stakeholders want to know whether their investments have been productive. We're all shelling out big time to modernize the grid. Didn't many utilities sell advanced metering infrastructure on the promise of customers "saving money" and increased reliability for the system? The first claim, based more on active energy management in the face of dynamic prices than the result of mere awareness of energy use data, remains somewhat theoretical as dynamic pricing remains scarce.  

The answer to the first question is that it's premature to say, but fair to conclude that generalizations are difficult. Where sea water flooded a substation vault, smart grid technology as we know it is of little use. Where tree damage in, say, leafy New Jersey—the suburbs raison d'etre—affected as much as one-third the shady canopy, the damage was so extensive that we'll all be fascinated whether millions of last gasps from smart meters really mattered. Did data from smart grid systems really enable utilities to better deploy field crews? 

The claim that smart grid technologies will increase reliability, in the face of massive physical destruction, was capped, and potentially knee-capped, by Sandy. Sure, under normal conditions—a line damaged by a single falling tree or a maintenance action with unintended consequences—smart grid technology should help pinpoint, isolate and address an outage, even a cause, and lead to more targeted and thus swifter restoration action. But a hurricane with the size and force of Sandy led to so many toppled trees, so much flooding and so much chaos, that recovery composed a cat's cradle of challenges that took time to untangle. Are automated switches and reclosers much help when large sections of the grid are purposefully taken down prior to the storm's impact to lessen damage?  

Utility leaders understandably have been busy overseeing the recovery and reporting in the aftermath of one of the worst storms to affect that large a population. Like a year ago, resignations are taking place. But I don't see any major utility figure taking to the airwaves and op-ed pages to address the lessons of the storm. 

Those lessons, off the top of my head, would include: 

• An unprecedented physical assault on perhaps 10 states will have huge repercussions, including damage that must be addressed first, simply to enable the restoration of power. 
• Grid modernization, a task measured by generations, is underway, but the process will continue for years and will require large, continuing investments. 
• The process of building a "smart grid" has just begun, with the deployment of sensors and controls, but the integration of systems and the application of data analytics that will produce real advantages is still years and many dollars away. 
• While the first century of the electric grid was characterized by spreading service to the most people at the lowest cost, the second century, beginning now, will be characterized by the digitization and increased hardening and resiliency of the grid.
• Finally, (not sure a utility leader will say this) is that the grid, by nature, is vulnerable and the reliability and resiliency of a ubiquitous electricity supply will rely on all of us taking steps in concert. That includes the embrace and development of non-utility-based energy supplies and practices.   

Though utilities and vendors may well come forward with claims that smart meters, advanced metering infrastructure and outage management systems aided their response to the hurricane, I'd be skeptical at best. Let's not let a major catastrophe and, thus, an opportunity to learn from what might become the new norm of extreme weather, lead us into a rerun of the smart grid hype cycle. 

Let's scrutinize any claims and demand well-reviewed evidence for any technology that played a role in hardening and resilience during Hurricane Sandy. And let's begin an honest conversation about the limits of technology in extreme weather events and the long road for a smarter, modern grid and what elements deserve tactical and strategic investments. That will include the growing awareness among utilities that societal players must take matters into their own hands to ensure resilience in the face of future threats to the grid. 

Utilities will come to see investments by, say, cities and towns, the military, front line responders like police and fire and medical personnel, hospitals, universities and, eventually, building owners and homeowners in creating microgrids, even pico-grids, and distributed energy resources as beneficial. Utilities don't have the capital to do it all, nor will a centralized grid ever achieve the reliability that self-sufficient nodes can add. Coastal cities will need civic buildings that achieve self-sufficiency so they can double as storm shelters when the next big one hits. Electric vehicles may even gain market traction if they serve as mobile storage units. Handheld, hand-cranked units that inexpensively combine lights and radios and are capable of recharging cell phones will be developed and will sell like hot cakes next time around. 

Lots of angles to explore here, with a historic opportunity to reassess electricity's value to society and how we go about securing that value under duress.

Later this week, we'll look to the experts for an explanation of the integration and data analysis challenges that will mark the maturation of the smart grid, as well as alternative visions to the utility-centric, centralized grid model that suffered so badly at Sandy's hands. 

http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/12/11/sandy-and-smart-grid-who-won

Can Energy-consumption Data Change Consumer Behavior?

By Knowledge@WhartonNov. 16, 2012

Time magazine

Do you know how much energy you consume every 15 minutes? Most would say that’s a hard — if not impossible — question to answer, but San Francisco-based utility provider Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) now has access to that information for 30,000 of its residential customers, thanks to its “SmartMeter” program. PG&E’s SmartMeters are its prime vehicle to fulfill its mandate from the state of California to get people to use less energy.

For 36 months (January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2011), PG&E has used SmartMeters to collect consumer energy-use data in Northern California. The devices measure residential customers’ electricity and gas usage at daily, hourly and 15-minute intervals. The goal of the program, according to PG&E, is to help customers better understand their energy usage and find ways to save on their energy bills. According to the PG&E website, customers who participate in the program have the ability to be notified by email, text message or phone when their utility use “is moving toward a higher-cost tier.”

The energy consumption data will supplement existing information on customers’ demographics, billings and payments, call center reports and utility pricing, among other variables. The company states that by studying all of this information, it hopes to gain insights into how its SmartMeter platform might be used “to engage customers, reduce energy consumption and offer customers appealing alternative pricing schemes.”

But with so much data to sort through, that’s a tall order. PG&E has partnered with the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI) to lead the effort, which will help identify academic research groups across the world to study the data. Peter Fader, Wharton marketing professor and WCAI co-director, notes that the PG&E project has wider implications for businesses that increasingly use data analytics to extract business intelligence, by offering a model on how to determine the volume and quality of information they need to track in order “to change behavior in meaningful ways.”

“This is a unique data set, and we don’t know of any other that has this level of granular data,” noted WCAI research director Ben Adams during a webinar announcing the research project earlier this month. In addition to energy usage data, researchers will get information about PG&E’s energy efficiency rebates, demand response programs and special rate plans that were available to the customers covered in the data. PG&E will safeguard customer privacy and sign nondisclosure agreements with researchers, company executives said at the webinar.

Studying data collected by the meters will help the company figure out “which message to send to which household at which time in order to get them to conserve energy,” says Fader. “Our job is to find the right academics out there who will help them answer [these] questions.” Those who are selected will receive PG&E’s data sets, and are expected to spend a year studying them before they file their findings and recommendations.

http://business.time.com/2012/11/16/can-energy-consumption-data-change-consumer-behavior/#ixzz2CgwrzJfl

Sandy Strikes Manhattan: Even Smart Grid Didn’t Keep the Lights On

Nov 14, 2012 2:52 PM
Paul Mauldin, Editor

Have we over-focused on high-tech adornments to the geriatric infrastructure?

The long-term Con Edison outages due to Sandy raised a lot of questions about the company’s disaster preparedness. That’s a switch in perspective because, after the World Trade Center attacks, we were dumbstruck at how quickly service was restored. Con Ed has also been the industry exemplar of reliability since I can remember.

The streets of Manhattan are where the U.S. utility business all started. Con Ed has 94,000 miles of underground cable and 35,000 underground transformers. And, in Manhattan the 21,000 miles of cable are networked, making the system a marvel of distribution planning and construction.

But what terrorists couldn’t do, nature did. The 14-foot tide washed down through the manholes and over the transformers and switches. At least one transformer exploded. The network went down.

All the smarts and sophistication that provided rapid fault sensing and network reconfiguration were overwhelmed and knocked out of operation by the flood of conductive sea water.

Ironically the issue of potential flooding had been raised a couple of months before Sandy struck. Con Ed had said it was making improvements to flood protection and had spent about $24 million for that purpose since 2007. Radical adaptations, such as submersible switches and above ground transformers would cost at least $250 million.

But wait, that’s about the same amount as Con Ed invested in smart grid technology ($272 million) with half provided by the federal funds-matching stimulus.

It makes me wonder (without having an easy answer) if the funds would have been better used in making the infrastructure more physically robust rather than “smarter”. Do we really have the right strategy for upgrading our aging power delivery system? Have we gotten too enamored with high tech at the expense of taking care of the physical support?

A better brain doesn’t matter if the heart doesn’t pump.

These are questions that are getting louder in the industry. Sea level rise, coastal flooding and more extreme weather are all associated by many with climate change. Climate change is also high on the President’s agenda now that the elections are over.

If our industry is as smart as we say our grid is, we’ll get real busy helping to shape policy so that further funding goes where it will do our customers the most good.

http://tdworld.com/go-grid-optimization/smart-grid/sandy-smart-grid-1112/#ixzz2CJThwyql

Govt offers incentives to electric car buyers

By He Wei in Shanghai ( China Daily)

11/6/12

China's first indigenous purely electric supermini car hit the market on Monday as part of agovernment-sponsored project to encourage the use of energy-saving vehicles.

Roewe E50 buyers in Shanghai could save around 100,000 yuan ($16,000), thanks togovernment subsidies and an upcoming local policy waiving license plate fees, according tocompany sources.

The E50, a purely electric vehicle, is the result of three years' research and development byShanghai Automotive Industry Corp, said Shen Ling, public relations manager of thecompany's new energy department.

The car applies advanced energy-saving and safety technologies to ensure zero emissions,she said.

Although the new model officially retails at 220,000-240,000 yuan, buyers may enjoy steepdiscounts as the government and automakers strive to promote new-energy vehicles.

Under a central government notice, a rebate of up to 60,000 yuan is offered on the purchaseprice to buyers of battery-powered cars, and the Shanghai municipal government is offering asubsidy of up to 40,000 yuan.

A move which could give the sector a further shot in the arm is a policy due to be unveiled bythe Shanghai authorities offering free license plates to owners of electric vehicles.

According to Shen, the decision, which is subject to the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission, is likely to be implemented "very soon".

Other than government incentives, auto manufacturers are seeking to drum up buyers' interestwith value-added services.

Meanwhile, SAIC is finalizing plans to offer discounts on group purchases by businesses, sheadded.

Shen said the company has set no sales targets for the new model. But SAIC chief engineerLing Tianjun said in August that it expects to sell 1,000 vehicles next year.

The launch of the car on the retail market will be a step forward for new-energy vehicles inChina, as the majority are currently owned by government bodies or used for publictransportation.

The average energy conversion rate of electric vehicles is 46 percent higher than conventionalcars, and they have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 68 percent, saidRaymond Tsang, a partner at Bain and Company.

Apart from purely battery-powered electric vehicles, hybrid cars, which run on a combination ofbatteries and conventional engines, are also popular as they are easier to operate, he said.

China's strategy to develop new energy cars has gained ground on many fronts, according toWang Tianwei, policy director of the policy coordination department of Jiading Auto City inShanghai.

On the policy front, the development of the electric vehicle industry has been a priority of theMinistry of Science and Technology for more than a decade.

On the regulatory front, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the NationalDevelopment and Reform Commission have issued at least 20 regulations over the pastdecade to regulate and promote the wider use of hybrid and electric vehicles.

The target was to make the country a world leader in electric vehicles by putting 500,000 onthe road by 2011.

But Wang said the deadline has been extended to 2015 as a result of technological constraintsand a lack of policy coordination.

Battery performance remains the greatest threat to the credibility of electric vehicles inmotorists' eyes. Wang said Chinese companies still lag far behind their competitors in the Westin battery technology.

A study conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs saidChina holds just 1 percent of the total patent registrations for lithium ion batteries, while Japanowns 52 percent and the United States has 22 percent.

The other common concern is a lack of recharging stations, he said.

SAIC has set up 1,170 recharging stations in Shanghai, but most of those are in suburbanareas.

Tao Weishuo, a veteran motorist in Shanghai, said that despite all the incentives he was stillreluctant to buy an electric vehicle.

"The shortage of recharging stations in the city center would limit where I could drive. What'sthe point of owning a car if it fails to take me anywhere I want?"

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-11/06/content_15881637.htm

The Power Grid: From Rickety to Resilient

By Bryan Walsh

Time Magazine

July 17, 2012

August 14, 2003 was a brutally hot day in much of the northeastern U.S. The high temperatures prompted people in cities like Pittsburgh and New York to crank up the fans and the air conditioning. The electricity those appliances consumed put unusually high demands on the transmission grid, forcing power plants to work overtime. The summer heat also caused local power lines in northern Ohio to expand and physically sag, which brought them into contact with nearby trees. Sparks ensued, and the resulting short circuit shut down power locally.

An alarm should have gone off at a local utility, leading the operator to reroute the flow of power around the affected area until a repair crew could be dispatched to fix the downed wires. But that didn't happen. The alarm never sounded, and utilities across the regional grid kept sending power through the weakened area, stressing the transmission lines further. Within two hours of the short circuit, all of the power lines in Ohio cut out, triggering a chain reaction that led other regional grids to fail before operators could do anything to respond. The resulting blackout — the biggest in American history — affected 55 million people in the northeastern U.S. and Canada. Darkness fell across Times Square because the aging snarl of wires and transformers that is the U.S. electrical grid couldn't handle a hot day and a few overgrown trees.

In his new book Resilience, Andrew Zolli — the director of the global innovation network PopTech — uses the electrical grid as an example of a system that lacks just that. And in an increasingly interconnected world — financially, ecologically, politically — one in which small errors in one place can cascade into broader system failures, the ability to adapt, accommodate and bounce back is only going to become more important. From climate change to overpopulation to recessions, the threats facing the world are as unpredictable as they are varied — which is why we need to craft systems that are nimble, that can bend under stress rather than break. "If we cannot control the volatile tides of change, we can learn to build better boats," writes Zolli. "We can design — and redesign — organizations, institutions, and systems to better absorb disruption, operate under a wilder variety of conditions, and shift more fluidly from one circumstance to the next."

In Resilience — co-written with the playwright and journalist Ann Marie Healy — Zolli covers everything from global finance to psychology, but the benefits of resilience are perhaps clearest in the environmental realm. Take the electrical grid again. Here we have a century-old system that is incredibly complex and also incredibly vulnerable to outside threats. Blackouts are only the most conspicuous part of the problem and thankfully do not occur often. But the battle is fought in other, smaller ways all the time. On unusually hot days in New York City this summer, the utility ConEd has had to reduce power flow to some parts of the city simply to keep the overstressed system running. In essence, they're trading blackouts for the occasional brownout, all because the system can't take the pressure being put on it — pressure that, thanks the increasingly hot summers climate change is bringing us, will only grow. Just as the grid is vulnerable to accidents, it also has few defenses against deliberate attacks by hackers or terrorists. And this vulnerability exists despite the fact that steady electrical service has become absolutely necessary for an always-on economy. If the grid crashes today, a lot more than your lights and air conditioner will go down with it.

To Zolli, the answer is to create what he calls a "swarming grid," a smart system that's operated more like the redundant infrastructure of the Internet — initially designed in part by the military, after all, to emphasize robustness and survivability. That means a grid capable of real-time monitoring and reaction that can create a holistic picture of what's happening throughout the transmission lines. During the 2003 blackout, operators were essentially working in the dark as they tried to head off the cascading failure — and that was even before the lights went out. The grid should be able not only to sense trouble, but to anticipate it. The current system assesses bits of information with a 30-second delay, which Zolli explains is "analogous to driving a car by looking at the rearview mirror." Finally, the national grid needs to be able to decouple into a series of local grids, to lock down into isolated islands, so that a problem in, say, Ohio doesn't result in Manhattan going dark.

Not all is hopeless. Almost despite itself, the grid is getting smarter and more resilient, with information technology companies like Google applying Internet smarts to the way we generate and electricity and move it around the country. The challenge will be paying for a system that, as Zolli notes, could eventually be one hundred to one thousand times larger than the U.S. domestic Internet, with trillions of nodes and sensors embedded in it. The only thing worse than building and paying for such a system is failing to do so, because we really have no other choice . In the 21st century, disruption is going to become the new normal in ways we can't even predict. All we can do is learn to bounce back better — and Zolli's excellent book is a very good start.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2119663,00.html?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true 

Con Edison and ThinkEco Launch Window Air Conditioner Energy Savings Program Device Allows Customers to Control Their Window A/C Power Usage

NEW YORK, NY, Apr 26, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- As temperatures begin to climb this summer, Con Edison and ThinkEco have partnered to launch a window air conditioner program that will allow customers to use less energy, protect the environment and help maintain reliable service during times of peak demand in New York City. Con Edison and ThinkEco plan to create smart A/C control through modlets on 10,000 New York City air conditioners, resulting in five megawatts of demand reduction, enough power for 5,000 homes. Con Edison plans to distribute the modlets this summer in large apartment buildings throughout New York City, working with building owners and tenants to install the energy saving devices. The modlet ( http://themodlet.com/demo.html ) is a simple plug-in smart outlet that can be controlled by a smart A/C thermostat and a user's online modlet account, allowing customers to control the temperature setting of any window air conditioner. Customers can remotely turn on/off their A/C from any smart phone or browser, and set the temperature. In addition, users can preset schedules through any web browser, so that their window air conditioners only turn on when needed, transforming the stand-alone window air conditioner into a smart, networked device that gives users enhanced convenience and control. Customers who participate in the program will also be alerted when a peak usage event is called, and Con Edison will adjust the unit's temperature. With over six million window air conditioner units in Con Edison's service area -- which sometimes run unnecessarily when residents are not home -- the ability for Con Edison to adjust air conditioner temperatures remotely during a heat wave could help to manage peak summer demand. "Con Edison continues to increase engagement with our customers by introducing new technologies that help them save energy, save money, and protect the environment," said Rebecca Craft, Director of Energy Efficiency Programs of Con Edison. "Our work with ThinkEco is forging a new way to help reduce the energy waste associated with window air conditioners, while keeping city residents comfortable during heat waves." The coolNYC program ( www.coolnycprogram.com ), created by ThinkEco and Con Edison, is a new approach to managing residential peak usage by combining ease-of-use in controlling window air conditioner thermostats with an incentivized program that uses real-time energy tracking capabilities. Con Edison can use the ThinkEco system to reduce strain on the grid by sending signals to participating customers' air conditioner units when demand peaks. The program technology allows Con Edison to focus on any geographic area of high priority during an emergency. "The coolNYC program is proving how New York City residents are highly receptive to using smart consumer-oriented products that save energy and enhance personal convenience," said Erik Katz, CEO of ThinkEco. "As electrical demand continues to increase, we need to ensure a way to relieve pressure on the grid in the absence of new capacity." Visit www.thinkecoinc.com to purchase a modlet and checkout http://themodlet.com/demo.html to see how easy they are to use. Participating residential customers receive the modlet smartA/C kit, which integrates Con Edison's intellectual property with ThinkEco's modlet platform. The smartA/C kit includes a modlet, a remote-control thermostat and access to a web-based application. ThinkEco is a former tenant of the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE at NYU-Poly) the NYSERDA-funded clean-tech incubator helping transition New York to a low-carbon future. About ThinkEco, Inc. New York City-based ThinkEco Inc. is a leading provider of easy-to-use energy efficiency solutions for homes and businesses. Its patented modlet system is a networked and scalable smart-plug platform that wirelessly connects any plug load to ThinkEco's robust cloud solution, powered by proprietary algorithms. The modlet provides the remote metering of plug-load power consumption in real time, and enables users to set savings schedules to better control their energy use and quantify savings. 

  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/con-edison-and-thinkeco-launch-window-air-conditioner-energy-savings-program-2012-04-26

Silicon Valley well-positioned to be a leader in smart-grid technology - San Jose Mercury News

Silicon Valley and the broader Bay Area are well-positioned to be national leaders in the development of smart-grid technologies as utilities, local governments and the privatee sector work to improve the electric grid, a new report by Collaborative Economics of San Mateo concludes.

In 2009, the latest year for which data is available, there were 12,560 smart grid jobs in the Bay Area, defined as Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. That's up from 5,480 smart grid jobs in 1995, a jump of 129%....

For the rest of the article: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19195033

Best Buy to sell home energy management gear

By: Martin LaMonica 

CNET

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

WASHINGTON D.C.--Best Buy plans to start selling home energy management products in stores later this year, creating a channel to introduce consumers to emerging grid technologies.

The consumer electronics retailer in late October will start a trial in which three stores will have dedicated areas to demonstrate and explain a range of home energy technologies, said Kris Bowring, senior director and platform lead for home energy at Best Buy, at the GridWeek conference here yesterday.

GE's Nucleus home energy management hub is expected to be one of the home energy products sold and demonstrated by Best Buy at stores.

The choice of products has not yet been finalized but there will be a variety, ranging from simple whole-house energy monitors to a combination of a home security service and smart thermostats. The products are geared at helping people improve home efficiency and get remote control to their homes from a Web portal or smartphone, Bowring said.

Best Buy has been researching home energy with consumers for about two years in preparation for the rollout, which will take place in San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago.

"This technology is coming. It's here. The energy monitoring and management--the understanding and capabilities are there. In fact, some of the systems deliver more information than the utilities could ever dream of," said Bowring. "It's going to be important."

The goal is to make home energy products approachable to more than just a small niche of users, such as consumers who are already very energy-conscious or cutting-edge technology adopters, he said. In doing research, Best Buy found that consumers didn't have a good understanding of how their energy usage compares to others or whether their homes were operating efficiently.

"Consumers were saying, 'I want to be energy efficient. I just don't know if I am. What is the pay-off for solar panels?'" Bowring said. "Once we started showing them products, they began saying this might have value."

One of the most desired features is the ability to remotely control the home, such as adjusting home thermostats, lights, or appliances. Another key is the ability to program a thermostat using a simpler user interface, such as a smart phone app or Web page, Bowring said.

One of the products expected to be part of the trial is General Electric's Nucleus energy management product. Priced at about $150, Nucleus is a simple gateway about the size of a cell phone charger that collects energy usage information and lets consumers control thermostats and connected appliances.

Other products likely to be part of the energy management offering are smart outlets. With those, people can go around the house to measure the power of different appliances. Through a smart thermostat, smartphone, or PC, the outlets can also be used to set schedules for lights or electronics.

A more high-end offering that would require Best Buy installation would be a combined home alarm and security system with a remote controlled thermostat. Some Best Buy stores are already offering home energy audits and surveys for consumers

Best Buy's move into energy management shows how different types of businesses other than utilities are getting involved in home energy management. But Bowring said that Best Buy intends to have a utility presence in stores to give consumers specific advice for making energy management products work appropriately.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20106217-54/best-buy-to-sell-home-energy-management-gear/#ixzz1Xym0WhEp