SmartGridMan.com

Make the Smart Grid a reality at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas

I am extremely fortunate to live in Austin, Texas, the “live music capitol of the world” and home of the globally renowned South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival.  Austin has for many years been a major high tech center, sometimes referred to as Silicon Gulch.  It was only a matter of time until the high tech world overlapped with the live music world, resulting in the SXSW Interactive Festival.  What better place for a discussion of the best motivations and approaches for the Smart Grid than at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival?  Especially since Austin is also the home of one of the most progressive public power systems in the United States, Austin Energy.

Continue reading >>>

OH: Six Myths About the Smart Grid

I just read Michael Kanellos’ piece, “Six Myths About Smart Grid” and I could not agree more with his first point.  Take a look at http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/five-myths-about-smart-grid/ .

I believe that consumers to various degrees want the benefits that control of their appliances and consumption could bring.  But, how much time and effort are most consumers willing to go to to save a few dollars a month?  And how many consumers have a clue about how to go about it?  And why ask consumers to optimize their behavior and consumption when the grid itself is so far from optimum?  The generation, transmission and distribution part of the business is so, so far from optimum.  Let’s demand of the folks who plan, build, operate and maintain our electric grid to get after it!  Consumers don’t want a Smart Meter.  Nor do they want to be smarter about the grid.  They want a grid that takes maximum advantage of electronics, telecommunications and information technology to maximize efficiency, economy, reliability, safety, security, sustainability, and service.  Asking consumers to solve all the problems based upon a myriad of data and options facilitated by a Smart Meter is like asking consumers to structure their web browsing and emailing and Tweeting and other online activities to optimize the efficiency of the Internet.

Continue reading >>>