I nearly dropped my Starbucks when I saw the headline Spies Hack in to the Electric Grid on yesterday's Oakland Tribune. Grid vulnerability is a topic that has been near and dear to my heart ever since I read Louvin's Brittle Power and wrote a few papers on the topic after the 2003 blackout.
As creepy as it might seem that there are 007s prowling substations around the world, the lights are still on. We've come a long way in just a few years, and I expect that the smart grid technologies are going to ensure the grid is much less vulnerable to widespread outages. The grid will be more fail-safe in the future as operators will have a lot more information available to them to nip problems before they cascade across entire regions, and can respond much more quickly to problems than they could before.
On the topic of data privacy, well, in an era when I can get a perfect image of my my own front door on Google street maps, a satellite image of my backyard, my resume on LinkedIn, and my political contributions on Huffington Post, I think we're in a losing battle with ourselves. We get ourselves in a dissonant conflict between sharing data with the world, and maintaining our privacy.
Showing posts with label smart grid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smart grid. Show all posts
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Distributech, Cont.
I was pleased to work our trade show booth at Distributech trade show in San Diego last week. It was another great show, and the delegate turnout was very good considering the economic times.
The smart grid is hot right now. (How about that Superbowl commercial?). And it's not just the electric grid that's getting buzz. The gas and water "grids" are realizing benefits from technology too.
The topic on many peoples minds, besides the smart grid, was the utility economic climate, and the stimulus package.
What do I think about the utility economic climate? Well, my crystal ball looks lovely on my coffee table, but I discovered long ago that it's as unreliable as DSL service -- circa 1998. (Webvan? come on, crystal. I might never forgive you for that onoe). So I won't speculate.
But I can speak for myself and say that I am very busy. And in a good way.
And I'm hopeful that our collective innovation, and a bit of that stimulus money will lead to the new green collar jobs that we really need.
The smart grid is hot right now. (How about that Superbowl commercial?). And it's not just the electric grid that's getting buzz. The gas and water "grids" are realizing benefits from technology too.
The topic on many peoples minds, besides the smart grid, was the utility economic climate, and the stimulus package.
What do I think about the utility economic climate? Well, my crystal ball looks lovely on my coffee table, but I discovered long ago that it's as unreliable as DSL service -- circa 1998. (Webvan? come on, crystal. I might never forgive you for that onoe). So I won't speculate.
But I can speak for myself and say that I am very busy. And in a good way.
And I'm hopeful that our collective innovation, and a bit of that stimulus money will lead to the new green collar jobs that we really need.
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