GigaOm Pro (subscription required) published an interesting new report recently entitled: “Cleantech, meet connectivity: a new era of energy efficiency.” While a number of interesting points are made, it – like many other reports on the smart grid – fail to note that consumer engagement is the key to making the smart grid truly “smart”. That said, here is a brief excerpt on the how connectivity will affect the smart grid:
“…Many Americans have a vague understanding of what the smart grid is, but after the 2003 Northeast blackout, coupled with concerns about electricity costs, an efficient and cost-effective electrical grid is looking more enticing. President Barack Obama has called for the installation of 40 million smart meters, and the goal is to have a grid where wireless sensor networks, software analytics working on smart meter data and renewable energy sources converge to manage demand, cut consumption and maximize access to clean power.
It’s an ideal, but with projections that show that demand will double in the next 50 years energy from 14 terawatts to 28 terawatts, we will need a new 1,000-megawatt power plant every day to meet that demand. Countries like India, where growth is far outstripping supply in terms of energy demand, are accustomed to frequent power outages. But the Western world is not. To maintain our standard of living, a more efficient grid may be a necessity and not a choice.
This year has seen a lively debate about what type of connectivity is best to link smart meters with utilities. Duke Energy has decided to go with public cellular networks, while PG&E is building a private network with the help of Silver Spring Networks. The debate highlights how reliable networks that connect machines, so-called M2M uses, are a key piece of energy conservation, since they are the doorway to data.
Whichever strategy prevails, utilities are investing in pipelines and devices that will leave them with a tsunami of data about customers’ energy use. Data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shows that if 140 million smart meters are installed over the next ten years, they will produce 100 petabytes of data. One petabyte translates into 13.3 years of HD video. Pike Research puts the cumulative market for smart grid analytics between 2011 and 2015 at $11.3 billion. Traditional IT companies like Oracle and Microsoft have entered this space with software products to help utilities crunch all of this data, and so have newer entrants like Opower, which analyzes property, weather, demographic and utility data and then delivers reports via text message, web and snail mail. Data analysis allows utilities to have baseline historical data and then monitor the data coming from smart meters and other machines on the grid in order to identify failures early and take corrective action.
One of the key aspects of smart grid data is that it is in real time. A good analytics program would allow a utility to automate decisions to meet demand response and avoid outages as they occur. Rather than a monthly meter reading, customers will get their energy use reported every 15 minutes, and it will be available on mobile devices. Consumers will be able to see how their energy use fluctuates throughout the day (and why electricity is priced accordingly) and how it relates to the big home-energy hogs like heating and cooling. A much closer relationship between utilities and customers opens the door to influencing those customers’ behavior around energy consumption. The smart grid will redefine what a utility is. The new access to data and software presents the possibility that a utility could begin providing value-added software services to those customers, like helping to schedule an electrical vehicle charge or controlling a thermostat in order to reduce customers’ energy bills...”
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