The Case for Deliberation: #SmartGrid starts with Smart Government, #democracy

A more reliable power system that facilitates 21st century services and reduces economical inefficiency and emissions that are harmful to health and the environment hardly seems like a divisive idea.  However, lack of consumer education, consumer distrust of certain policies or technologies and an uncertain, constantly-shifting energy policy in a highly-polarized socio-political environment are some of the dogged issues that challenge a more swift and comprehensive modernization of our aging, mostly-unchanged 18th century power model in this age of the iPhone.

Every day, energy consumers from individuals, colleges, hospitals, government and commercial-industrial facilities are wasting obscene amounts of money, when there is, in my view, a clear business and ethical case for modernization and investors ready to cash in on a secure return in face of nervous stock markets.  Why aren't more power users seizing the opportunities (see, for example, lighting)? 


Utilities implement new technology like advanced metering infrastructure as part of an overall infrastructure upgrade to improve the quality and availability of existing service and opening the doors to new options for consumers, but misinformation, confusion, and distrust prevail in a number of communities.  How can we address this situation?

We look forward to your opinion and insights. 

This set of issues can be seen, however, in a greater context.  How are communities and organizations supposed to make smarter decisions if they are mis-informed? How can a relative consensus be reached if there is little, effective conversation, in this increasingly distracted and polarized society?  Who has the time to become an expert in energy, healthcare, fiscal, foreign, environmental, and myriads of other policies?  It's difficult to understand the big issues between the daily responsibilities, email jail, sitting in traffic, constant electronic stimuli, and the few things people try to squeeze in to remain human (enjoy time with family, friends, nature, community, and creative endeavors, and oh yes, sleep).  Most people, as demonstrated by low participation level is elections, see their singular vote as relatively insignificant in the big picture.  How do we overcome this so-called "rational ignorance"?

Unfortunately, the majority of our paid, elected officials don't seem very successful in the advancement of civilization, either.  How can we have smarter cities and countries without smarter policies?  The solution is apparent: we need more educated citizens.  Education is the first thing to get cut by politicians, so no luck there.  How about the Internet and its repository of knowledge and news media from multiple perspectives, including analysis by more independent journalists.  Unfortunately, misperceptions are resilient as humans aren't typically motivated to change their views, so we have a tendency to find media and information that re-enforces our current biases and paradigms.  This problem is looking more intractable by the minute.

Deliberative Polling

The problem is not that "the masses," the "common people" are stupid, inept, or unwise.  In fact, recent experiments with a more direct form of democracy prove quite the contrary.  We do not have a shortage of intelligence.  What we lack is effective dialogue. 

It is also not enough to ask people for their "opinion."  Mere opinion polls or the common notion of internet direct democracy do not reflect the wisest answers a people can provide, because they do not reflect what people think.  People hardly think when answering polls.  Ask most people about "microgrids" and you will likely draw stares.  However, if you simply poll them about it with a yes, no, or don't know question, you will magically have strong opinions (apparently).  The most scientific and inclusive poll is rendered useless unless respondants are minimally qualified to answer.  Who gets to decide who is sufficiently lucid in a matter?

"Asked for their opinion of the [fictious "Public Affairs Act of 1975"], large percentages of the public either supported or opposed it, even though no such act was ever passed. In 1995, The Washington Post celebrated the "twentieth unanniversary" of the nonexistent act by asking respondents about its "repeal." Half the respondents were told that President Clinton wanted to repeal the act; the other half were informed that the "Republican Congress" favored its repeal. The respondents apparently used these cues to guide their answers, without recognizing the fictional character of the entire endeavor."
- Fishkin/Akerman

Enter the Deliberative Polling(R) method.  A statistically-significant and demographically and attitudinally representative sample of a population is invited to deliberate on a policy issue: how to address an aging, costly electric infrastructure?  Experts representing different opinions and relevant areas of expertise are also invited.  Deliberative Polling, developed by Dr. Fishkin from Stanford University's Center for Deliberative Democracy, engages a microcosm of society in discussion and gives them a chance to listen to and question experts.  The results have been applied toward conflict resolution, energy policy, governance, health policy and other areas from municipalities to states and even at an event at the European Parliament with representatives of 27 nations who spoke 23 different languages.

The case of Texas is particularly interesting.  A conventional fuel industry stronghold, which was 49th in the U.S. in wind energy production, became a leader in renewable energy generation, with the support of electric energy consumers.  It is an example of how decision-making and policies are more intelligent and resilient for the long-term when we help enough people to take the time from their busy lives to really learn and debate issues.

With deliberative polls, on the other hand, people actually have the chance to think and, golly, even change their mind.  It also brings people closer together because they get to see other people's points of view and it is harder to demonize people you actually get to know a little.  Northern Ireland Catholics and Protestants agreeing that their children should spend more time together.  Chinese villagers contributing to the discussion of budget priorities.  Americans agreeing on specific, smarter energy policies.  Would there have been less resistance to smart meters based on misinformation regarding RF, security, and other issues and a better understanding of why they are needed to begin with, if there had been deliberative polling activities so customers have a chance to educate themselves and reach their own conclusions and consensus?

Deliberative Polling

Stanford University Dr. Fishkin's Deliberative Polling Process

Bobby Fishkin, son of the proponent of Deliberative Polling,
takes the concept to the next level

For our lusophone readers: Dr. J. Vasconcelos, author of Democracia Pura questions
how representative is "representative democracy"?

Smart City Network interview - #SmartGrid Update with Nelson Abreu

Smart grid communications networks:
are we looking at them in the right way?

By Gail Rajgor on Jan 5, 2012 (U.K.)
Originally published by Smart Grid Update with one the speakers for the 2012 conference on Smart Communications for Energy Management 

Joined up thinking by reverse engineering the big picture could create a truly holistic smart network that works for everyone.

When it comes to designing smart grid communications networks the options are boundless. Utilities could opt for a fairly basic network that only does meter reading or diagnostics.They could invest in more sophisticated systems which also integrate applications like commercial area networking capabilities, speech automation, SCADA functions, distribution automation, substation automation, equipment delivery tracking, and more besides.

Others could also integrate public services offerings, such as internet and Wi-Fi capability.
Indeed, as CE Power Solutions’ Nelson Abreu points out: “there is really no one-size-fits-all solution”.
However, companies and municipalities should, he says, adopt a “holistic approach that tries to maximise network investments to bring the most value to communities” while taking into consideration security, liability, and general business strategy concerns.

Benefits abound

From a purely business perspective, there are operating efficiencies, cost savings and revenue recovery to be gained. There are social and environmental benefits to be had too, if the right approach is adopted.
“You’re bringing new value or enhancing the customer experience. And if it’s a municipal utility you’re improving the life, the liveability of your citizens by providing not just more utility services – electric related services – but also new communications services,” says the engineer who heads up CE Power Solutions Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Smart Grid services team.

Effective smart grids should, Abreu continues, enable utilities to provide more and more power with today’s ageing infrastructure “in a way that manages cost, improves the reliability of that system, and accommodates a greater renewable portfolio.”

In addition, they should also provide for “digital inclusion and digital government for societies that have segments of the population that are currently cut off from all of this…to bring information about their costs close to their hands so they are empowered to make better energy decisions, so they can save power and they can participate.”

And with better energy management, increased energy efficiency, and greater integration of renewable energy in grid networks, energy losses through distribution networks and emissions can also be cut significantly.
Abreu points out that just being able to give a customer hourly data/information about their energy consumption and enabling them to estimate their bills based on their current pattern of consumption produces a conservation effect of at least 4%. “That’s just by giving information,” he says. “If we really take all of this seriously we can achieve a significant saving while being able at the same time to feed more and more demand, but it will take a smarter approach no question.”

Designing your network

While many will adopt a phased-step approach to network design – taking an initial idea or business imperative and implementing solutions and expand the network system later when new goals are set or new technologies enter the market, Abreu suggests that this is inefficient and can be costly.

Instead, the key to successful smart grid investment is to adopt a reverse engineering mentality. You have to “begin with the end in mind” and “decide what the features you’re looking for are,” he says. Then work backwards from there.

“Is it only utility applications or do you want to provide a whole load of other services, like voice over IT or Wi-Fi, so you have this infrastructure that other companies can use to provide services? Depending on what you’re trying accomplish you are looking at different challenges.”

By working backwards from your desired outcome, you can identify potential opportunities you may not have considered or problems that you can provide solutions to before going live. The alterative being suddenly encountering major problems once the system is operating and being dumped with the additional costs.

And you can build in flexibility and security by design from the start for later solutions to meet future needs while also planning for the unexpected.Abreu insists: “It is possible to have a good return on investment without taking shortcuts.” At present, he says, there is “a lot of disconnect between a planned benefit and then the actual feasibility of it with the current system.”  One example is outage management systems, which have “great benefits” like being able to determine outage sources quicker and, with controls, restore power to more people sooner.“Sounds brilliant, but sometimes that is not really tested out in the field under normal field conditions,” he says.Moreover, even if a network does work well in normal conditions, “does it work well under the worst conditions? That’s a completely different question.”

Processing

Another big piece of the puzzle, other than the technology, is the processing.
“You are used to running [your operations] a certain way and now you have a deluge of data and new features,” Abreu says, so companies have to plan for handling the increased volume of data, know how to use it and manage its flow between different departments.“The equipment has to move a certain way, the data has to flow a certain way, and then you want to use that actionable data for some useful purpose,” he stresses.It “could tell you something about impending failure, how well the communications network is performing in a certain area, whether somebody is stealing power.”

While no system will ever be flawless, his advice is always to plan for the unexpected when designing a network, particularly if planning to do so in a phased approach. “Perhaps you have a perfectly well functioning meter and network communications card and access points, but when your try to integrate all of this sometimes they do not inter-operate the way you would expect or in the field there’s some condition that you hadn’t foreseen.”Fluctuating and extreme temperatures, humidity, surges, harmonics, outages and more should all be factored in with a view to how the system, as a whole, may react.

Why new-generation LED lighting is set to make cities greener with Dr. Torben Riise of Green Air International

Reducing the consumption of energy makes sense for any business and household, but more than that, it is critical from an ecological point of view. Dr. Torben Riise, COO of US-based Green Air International (GAI), is one of the most knowledgable and enthusiastic proponents of the latest LED technology. "If just 10% of the fluorescent tubes in the U.S. were converted to LED tubes, which typically save from 40 to 60% of lighting energy costs, we could prevent greenhouse gasses equivalent to 4 million cars and decommission over 50 coal burning power plants, and eliminate mercury from the environment – every year! And we would save $6 Bn in electricity costs in the process."

According to Dr. Riise, "only 10-30% of the energy used by non-LED bulbs or tubes like incandescent and fluorescent go to producing light, the rest is wasted as heat."  Yesterday's LEDs suffered from the same issue, which also led to shorter lifetimes: heat not only raises A/C bills, it also accelerates the decay of lighting equipment itself.

In the last 18 months, we have seen the emergence of new-generation, ultra-efficient LED lighting with negligible heat radiation and burn times in the order of 50,000 hours burn time (over 5 years of continuous use or more than 10 years if used half of the day or less).  LED's are not deteriorated by repeated switching on and off through energy-saving sensors and timing technologies, as are fluorescents for example. 

There have also been significant improvements in the quality and intensity of the lighting: there are various "kelvin" ratings available (different warmths to suit different applications or environments from hospitals to offices or restaurants).  Successful projects have included parking lots, administrative buildings, college campuses, hospitals, airports, manufacturing facilities, government facilities, and municipal lighting. 

Utmost on the minds of most parties is the business case or return on investment. With an ROI typically ranging from 1 to 2 years, and warrantees of 5 or more years, and expected life cycle that far surpasses this (10 to 15 years), "many consider it practically unethical not to do it."  Investors, on the other hand, see an opportunity to help those entities that lack the capital for the investment and see it as a secure return in a time of weak and volatile market conditions, so Green Air International has found that financing in the form of lease-to-own and other instruments has not been difficult to secure for customers that require it.  With the rise of micro-equity financing, small businesses should find it even easier to raise the capital required for energy upgrades like this one with a comprehensive analysis by an expert. 

"There are different players in the market, but we have focused on finding the right LED light products – meaning the optimal solution between high quality and affordable prices – and establishing a partnership with the manufacturer.  Some times a product seems cheaper, but when you do a life cycle analysis it falls short compared to other alternatives."

The so-called "negawatt" (negative watt) industry is beginning to pick up and LED's are poised to play an important role.  It is both an opportunity for communities and other entities to save green, go green, and for enterpreneurs like Dr. Riise to capitalize on a percentage of money that is already being spent in the form of wasted energy.  By reducing electric bills with quality products, we can all win. 

Interview: Miami, Florida

Disruptive Energy Development Imminent? Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction in the News

When hydrogen, the main element of water, is introduced to a small piece of the metal nickel or palladium, a reaction releases more energy (in the form of heat and light) than was introduced.  The law of conservation of energy would imply the "excess heat" involved is released from the nucleus, however this nuclear energy is purportedly non-radioactive.  Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the economic efficiency could be 10 to 30 times that of conventional fuels (Energy Return on Energy Invested) by some predictions.

 Graphic: Post-Carbon Institute 

Recently, the media is reporting that often-derided cold fusion (also known as low-energy nuclear reaction - LENR) is being taken more seriously than ever and a breakthrough, though largely considered unlikely, could take the energy industry and the entire world by surprise.  It would easily rank among the most disruptive technologies in history. 

US News reports "LENR demonstration projects recently initiated at respected places like MIT, the University of Missouri, and the University of Bologna; public presentations by executives at one of the world's largest instrument companies, National Instruments, apparently designed to attract the top LENR researchers into a project to test and quantify observed LENR effects; and a July report from the European Commission's research and development center that LENR at least has sustainable future energy technology potential. But near the top of the cold fusion research community's hit parade are musings from NASA, like the fact that the agency apparently filed two LENR-related patents last year and that a leading NASA scientist has indicated that LENR is real enough to pay attention to and study."

CBS News' 60 Minutes reported on renewed interest in the technology, featuring a some-what vindicated Fleischmann. The Financial Times also comments that "a new report by Boeing for Nasa, includes LENR among the options for powering a future generation of "ultra green aircraft'" in a piece recalling the recently-deceased Martin Fleischmann who, with Stanley Pons, first caused a stir about cold fusion in 1989.

60 Minutes piece on LENR (CBS News on YouTube)

 

So while few highly-reputable entities are quite ready to announce that LENR is on the renewables map, many see some hope for plentiful, clean energy for our world as important agencies and companies have rekindled interest.  We maintain an open mind, but chances are our efforts to modernize the utility industry will remain inexorable.

Green Waves in Copenhagen and other increasingly Smart Cities

Had lunch with a good friend and colleague in the smart energy industry, Dr. Torben Riise of Green Air International, who had just returned from his native Denmark.  We discussed how in Europe, so-called "green waves" are more prevalent and have been around for a couple of decades.  Green waves encourage cyclists and motorists to maintain a certain speed range by continually meeting green lights when they keep to the range and red lights when they do not.  This continual flow of vehicles cuts down wait time (time lost has it's economic impact) as well as reduced emissions from less acceleration and breaking action.  Perhaps, this is one more reason why the Danes are surveyed as one of the happiest people on Earth. 

Green Wave in Copenhagen

Green Wave in Copenhagen

Amsterdam

And on this side of the pond... progressive San Fran

Microwatts to Megawatts: Energy Harvesting featured on BBC News

In this post we address some of our reader's questions and comments and continue our focus on residual energy harvesting -- harnessing small amounts of energy that usually goes to waste, but that in aggregate could result in important energy efficiency gains for intelligent communities.  Please enjoy this article by BBC News that features innovators developing technologies that can become pervasive in Intelligent Communities of tomorrow.

Keep those questions, comments, and information exchange coming on
Blogger, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Email!


Harnessing energy from the human body may only generate small amounts of electricity but scientists believe it has a wide range of potentially life-changing applications.

Imagine clothes made with materials capable of generating electricity from either the warmth or movement of the human body.

That is what Professor Steve Beeby has been developing in his laboratory at the University of Southampton.

A vest made of this material could potentially power medical sensors on the wearer's body to carry out periodic checks for high blood pressure or other symptons. The results could be transmitted wirelessly back to a GP or hospital.

There is potential to reduce regular hospital check-ups with benefits to both patients and a cash-strapped NHS, believes Prof Beeby.

"The idea with energy harvesting normally is you collect energy as you go along and when you have enough, you use it. The electronics go back to sleep and you carry on collecting more energy for the next time."

But making the clothing truly responsive to body movement is the challenge for scientists.
"Clothing is designed to be compliant and not resist your motion and to get electrical energy out you're going to have to do some work," says Professor Beeby.
"It may be best to put this somewhere like your shoe or sock, where there are naturally forces as you walk around."

Power of the heart-beat

Another way of generating electricity is from human blood flow or the movement of internal organs.
For instance the heart's movement has been harnessed to power a pacemaker developed by cardiologist Dr Paul Roberts at University Hospital Southampton.

"Occasionally we'll actually put our hands on the heart and it's astounding how forceful each beat is. You couldn't hold it hard enough to stop it from squeezing - and that's at rest."

"If someone had to get up and run they're able to increase that strength even more, so clearly there's a huge reserve in what the heart is able to deliver," he says.

The pacemaker lead is placed through the heart and a balloon is put in two of the heart's chambers so as each contracts it squeezes the balloon, forcing a magnet down the lead, through a coil to produce an electric charge.

So far Dr Roberts and his team have been able to produce 17% of the power needed for a pacemaker. Pacemaker batteries have to be replaced every seven years or so via surgery. Creating an everlasting pacemaker powered entirely by the charge from the owner's own heartbeats, would take out the risk associated with heart surgery as well as saving on costs.  Dr Roberts is well aware of the apparent contradiction of people with heart complaints using heart power to run pacemakers.

"The amount of energy we are potentially taking away from the heart's energy is less than 1% so even in someone with very significant heart failure the percentage is so small we don't think it would any appreciable effect on their overall functions."

Soldier power
 
At Cranfield University, scientists are working on developing knee brackets to allow soldiers to generate power as they march or run that could eventually replace battery packs.  "I'd like to put the device in a soldier's boot and use that energy. They carry a lot of batteries around with them so there's a massive incentive to reduce the load they carry," says Alice Daniels of Cranfield University.

Scientists are also using piezoelectric devices to potentially generate power from the bounce of a rucksack on a soldier's back as they run.

"The idea behind energy harvesting is you can have an autonomous system so you don't have to pay to change all the batteries," says Daniels.  "Initially the cost of energy harvesting will be higher, but in the long run the payback period will work out."

“The great thing is this needs only microwatts of power from your body to save megawatts in the system.”
- Professor Eric Yeatman Imperial College 

Capturing real time information released by humans - such as body temperature - offers the potential to save on the amounts of energy consumed nationwide in institutions like workplaces or schools.

"Buildings use enormous amounts of power for lighting, heating and air conditioning but in a pretty coarse and stupid way that doesn't take much account of people's activity," says Professor Eric Yeatman of Imperial College.

"But if everybody was wearing sensors that were monitoring their activity, and if that was being transmitted into the environment, you could imagine a situation where your home or office could be constantly adapting itself in a predictive way to what you're asking of it.

Professor Yeatman believes such technology could cut down on waste enormously and aid the reduction of global power consumption.

"The great thing is this needs only microwatts of power from your body to save megawatts in the system."

SOURCE:
BBC News
5 September 2012

Can electricity from the human body replace batteries?

By Anne-Marie Bullock Producer, Costing the Earth

Why do we need smart meters??

I was following an interesting discussion on LinkedIn, that raises the question of whether we really need smart meters.  I've overseen operation of a meter reliability shop during rollout of Advanced Metering Infrastructure and its associated "smart meters" and network devices.  I was part of a team aggressively investigating accuracy, reliability, safety, and security of this technology, knowing that those devices would be in our own homes as well.  This utility had already been using demand-side management and RF-based automated meter reading (AMR), long before "Obama wants to spy on me" hysteria surfaced on the "interwebs."

Meter accuracy, as measured with industry standard equipment and procedures, has shown time and time again that modern digital meters are more accurate.  Meter data analytics allows us to monitor for strange deviations like sudden jumps in billing, which is not possible with classical, non-communicating meters.  The overwhelming percentage of times there is a concern about billing, it works against the utility, not the consumer: for example, a meter that intermittently does not accumulate or even a period of negative usage (which would amount to a discount).  Either way, with data-driven processes, even billing estimation, when  needed, can be more accurate and efficient.

The addition of communications does not affect accuracy: this has been demonstrated by independent experts investigations, public service commissions and other parties. It does, however, open the door to a number of applications that can give users more detailed information about their usage (customer web portals), to opt for cost-saving billing that helps address peak-time generation shortages that can compromise system stability for millions, can lead to faster service restoration (outage management), and can reduce power theft (or a nasty neighbor using your meter while you are on vacation without being noticed). Theft leads to higher rates for the remaining ratepayers.  Now, do the AMI meters need to be within the premise where they can be tempered with by the resident or others?  Not necessarily. All I need as a consumer is a way to readily access a display, which can be at the premise, or even virtual (online, accessible via their computer, tablet, or phone) - I don't need the actual meter in my house.  If that display goes bad, only the display would need to be replaced, assuming the customer even looks at it. 

AMI also makes connection and dis-connection more efficient, and one can obtain health flags, temperature and other information that can help monitor the metering system's performance. Field metering personnel is still needed, but in fewer numbers: the solution here is not holding on to the past, but re-training. It is my understanding that at FPL, for example, most of the displaced meter readers have been re-assigned to other positions.  This is not isolated to utilities.  Modernization is happening in most industries and there are a few million unfilled jobs in this country because of lack of trained personnel: this is an opportunity for employers to work with local, state, and federal government and education organizations (state colleges, vo-tech centers), and financiers.

AMI is one part of a longer term, integrated vision put forth by engineers worldwide to modernize our aging infrastructure to meet the demands of 21st century power users and to provide new services. For example, some utilities would be able to provide energy efficiency data (combining metering data with GIS, temperature, and other data), demand-side management options, integrate more distributed and renewable energy storage and generation, electric vehicle charging management, increase in distributed generation, real-time power quality monitoring, smart appliances and much more over a multi-layered secure communications infrastructure. This network infrastructure can tie-in to distribution (OG/UG) automation, substation automation, wireless municipal network (environmental, safety, mobile workforce, traffic, lighting, e-gov, e-edu, e-lit inclusion and many other applications) resulting in more efficient operation of the grid and of communities as a whole. Some utilities have found additional efficiencies by metering gas and water with AMI as well.

Security is a legitimate concern as it is in other areas like our government agencies, banks, hospitals.  This is a constant of IT.  Are there hackers breaking into intelligence agencies, banks, media, online retailers, Fortune 500 companies and utilities? Certainly. It's an awful lot of work for billing information, though, compared to other types of more lucrative hacking.  If a criminal really wants to figure out when someone's not home, they have had easier ways to do so, than hack into their meter.  Does that mean we will halt progress? Will we give up our connectivity via smart phones, tablets, computers?

What is the price of modernization? What is the price of no modernization? Frequent blackouts? Forbiddingly higher rates? More kids with asthma and other pollution-related health issues? Geopolitical effects of climate change and over-dependence on fossil fuels?

Are we going to give up our smart grid vision? Unlikely.

Heck, perhaps we will have a disruptive technology in energy, a breakthrough in distributed energy that makes the grid redundant: micro-nuclear plants everywhere, a "free energy" discovery, or we build out natural/biogas to the home and use it cleanly and efficiently with fuel cells... leaving the grid as a backup.

In the meanwhile, utilities will do what they have to do to keep up with their responsibility of providing near-perfect availability of cost-effective, high-quality, increasingly-green power for our increasingly power-hungry life laden with sensitive electronics.

Nelson Abreu, BSEE