Major media outlet officially over eco-trend 4

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1. 

   amazingdrx Posted 10:56 pm
   29 Jan 2009

   Suffering from complicationThis is the start of distributed smart grid technology and where the internet switching giant leads, the paradigm must shift.  Shift right over to a marriage of the grid and the internet.
   Cisco's Chambers signalled the death of the old phone companies before the bushwacking began.  It's finally happening, phone traffic is shifting to the internet.  Pretty soon a shift to wireless broadband over the power grid might gobble up the cell phone business too?
   This limited use of smart grid switching concentrates on internet devices, phones, servers, PCs and so forth, but it's just a few USB grid power relays away from controlling a million water heaters or freezers to smooth out power grid fluctuations due to wind and solar power variations.
   It's all too complicated for popular media so far though.  When producers say blah, over stories like this, the public won't hear about them.  Until every other home has a distributed smart grid device controlling its power use and granting internet access over the power grid.
   By that time the second internet boom will have turned bubble, and the smart money will have gone elsewhere.  Tech media, oh please blah us and make our money smart, along with the power grid.
   
   http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

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2. 

   Backcut Posted 11:52 pm
   29 Jan 2009

   Solar flares?Not saying that I am against a smartgrid, with its magical ways of making us more efficient but, how will a massive solar flare affect this kind of huge infrastructure? Can we isolate parts of the grid to minimize failures? Will we base all of our lifesaving systems on this grid? And will we be so dependent on this system that will fail us when we need it the most?
   Don't get me wrong, as I do think we need an upgrade. The power companies want the government to buy their dilapidated distribution systems from them at the cost of trillions of pretty pennies.
   If we're going to have a system, new or old, we need to have a backup plan for the inevitable massive failure.
   
   Scenic pics at http://Lhfotoware.blogspot.com

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3. 

   amazingdrx Posted 12:09 am
   30 Jan 2009

   Built in stabilityThat's the beauty of a distributed smart grid, each home would be an independent cell, connecting together into stable loops, that connect all the way up to national scale.
   The current widespread midwestern ice storm power outage is expected to be ended by mid-Feb.  Is that particular centralized power grid model reliable?
   With a smart grid neighborhood loops could be up and running already, stores and gas stations would have emergency backup power from cogeneration systems.  Large buildings with cogeneration and farms with biogas and wind power would power up local grids.  Solar panels would kick in to charge emergency backup batteries in homes.
   Plugin hybrids would be used in auxillary generator and storage mode to get local grids going.
   Meanwhile in central monopoly power grid land, customers wait for weeks while their pipes freeze and businesses go belly up.
   Which system is more stable in troubled climatic times like this with ever more severe weather events happening ever more frequently?  Is it worth 50 billion per year to get the smart grid going?  Yep, even in lost business from storms alone.
   
   http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

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4. 

   Backcut Posted 12:55 am
   30 Jan 2009

   But...If all of those cool things are connected to the smartgrid, will they all cease to function in the event of a massive solar flare? A smart grid might also distribute the dmage to everything hooked up to it. Hopefully, we'd have some advance notice of an incoming solar flare and could isolate parts of the smartgrid.
   Would a surge disable a solar panel? How would the electrical system of a car connected to the gris fare against that surge. The smart grid would hopefully have redundant safety systems to protect everything hooked up to it.
   
   Scenic pics at http://Lhfotoware.blogspot.com

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