greenbiz.com— Despite not fully understanding what the smart grid is, a recent survey found the majority of Americans actually support it.
Sep 8, 2010View in Crawl 4
They are having a blast out here in California with the first link in the smart grid chain, the home smart meter. It seems that it interferes with cell phones, security systems, car alarms, cordless phones, WiFi, wireless baby monitors... And most people don't seem to understand that if you run you AC from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM your bills will go up.
Still if we are going to have technologies like Eagle hacking windmills and solar power, as a significant part of our energy network, we need to be able to adapt the grid in real time. Never know when a California Condor might take out 100 KWatt wind turbine, by trying to glide through the blades or the Sun refuses to shine on that 1,000 Acre solar farm.
I can see in the future the government deciding when to turn your AC, T.V., Wii on or off.
Better means we need to take our existing lines and upgrade them. And then, smarter: We need to make sure that we're really moving electricity in the smartest way and using the most cost-effective electricity at the right time of day. Eventually, we can get to a system where an electric company will be able to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air conditioner won't operate at its peak, you'll still be able to cool your house, but that'll be a savings to the consumer. And so [we will be] giving people and companies a role in the management of how we use electricity.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
From the article: "The private and public sectors have begun working toward common goals and have accepted that a collaborative effort is necessary to make smart grid a reality."
Collaborative effort means allowing the government access into what appliances you can use in your own home - and when - there are even proposals to have your thermostat under strict remote control. All this in the name of "green initiatives" and "carbon footprints." Go ahead and give up your freedom for the new buzz word, the "smart grid." These new world order assh**es are relentless.
Seems like most people jumped on this bandwagon after that big Northeast blackout a little while back...with the promise of a smart grid eliminating such occurrences.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
For the people who downvoted afizzledbear, surely you missed an implied /s in that joke. Or was he serious?
Based on the rest of the more important bug reports (bury feature broken, upcoming broken, etc) if you're not a major media publisher it seems unlikely they'd care.
@thejokker: "The first thing they're working on is site stability"
@afizzledbear: "Well I reported a bug and yet they responded to me"
Then things with digg4 are in even worse shape that I feared.
IMHO neither of those should be priorities compared to bringing back things like "bury" that made digg a better filter for interesting content than rss feeds & google news.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
I'm part of the digg v4 team, and while it's not really my area of the product and therefore my caring is not necessarily directly relevant, I care. FWIW!
"blood money"? that sounded overly dramatic, even for someone whose comment history consists of shoehorning "kevin" or "diggv4" in every f**king way possible.
Everything on Digg is either sponsored s**t, or PR content spun to look like a real story.
Kevin, make it stop.
You need to take the blame, and not blame your CTO for your business decision to launch this steaming pile directly into the face of your users.
Sheep Confused By Angry Commenters, Want Digg Anyways
Despite not fully understanding what Digg has become, a recent survey found that the majority of complacent Diggers are actually retarded.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
There would certainly be advantages, but I have also heard of many disadvantages. The "smart grid"TM is often touted as an improvement in security, despite the fact that it can apparently be hacked with less than $500 worth of equipment, with devastating consequences. Its supposed to improve "power grid reliability", by giving the power company (and possibly hackers) control of your home appliances. Overall I fear its just a ploy by the utilities/contractors to get "peak hour metering" implemented across the board and federal subsidies for augmenting their profits through purchase of massively marked up equipment & patents. Most of the "Smart Grid" articles I've read don't say anything about new/improved power plants, just tacking a bunch of computer components into the current grid to "improve" things. The one thing I've seen that I really like about it is that it is supposed to make some pretty serious allowances for Point of Use power generation (Wind,Solar,Off Peak Storage,etc), something that more than a few utilities have been fighting. But even this could be abused, I recall somewhere a state has a law requiring that all utilities provide for grid attached solar/wind home generation/payback but the primary utility for the state is basically ignoring the requirement. And another case where the utility would provide the equipment, but charged an obscene yearly fee for what basically amounts to a safety switch to keep the wind generator/solar panels from feeding power into downed power lines.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
Americans confused by most things that have to do with 'smart'. Today, I met a high school graduate that was not only barely literate, but proud of the fact. 'Books are for losers' she said. I can't wait to see where she'll be in ten years. And this has become the norm. I'm truly scared for this country.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
Nice article but I didn't find any actual information in there. Why not tell people how there are competing technologies for the smart grid that offer drastically different benefits to opposing sides of the game. The so called smart grid, the one you refer to and utilities push, is one of command control and demand response with very little savings from aggregate load sharing. The other one is more like the internet with one live, published price for power for each power location. This one never gets any news because it only benefits us end users.
This price is constantly and automatically updated based on the price for all the components like generation, transmission and distribution. Should a shortage occur to drive it higher, loads like appliances can automatically go into more economical operating modes, generators can turn on or ramp up, transmission lines can open up and distributed generation or storage systems can begin exporting to the grid. The best and smartest generation systems would even be able to learn enough about daily swings to predict usage fairly accurately to profit best and this is exactly what reduces transmission waste the most so we all benefit.
Should the price the drop (based on milli-second decisions), all those decisions can back off toward the other direction without any more info than this simple price change. If a transmission line breaks, the price only changes for those affected by it so those customers have the most incentive to cut back or generate more. If a sister transmission line can supply enough of the difference, it adds its cost into the mix and no customers even learn there was this 'major problem' unless they see that the price rose for a couple seconds. In this manner, no control is wielded over the customer and those customers who choose the smartest appliances, renewable energy systems or conservation methods will reap the most benefit. This is the incentive for people to adopt a technology like this.
The only losers are the utility company officials who want to maintain their monopoly over electricity prices.
Even in emergency times like what would have been traditional power outages, some users may choose to power their life support when prices temporarily go sky high. To them, it's better than losing power.
lucas123Sep 8, 2010
Of course we do. It's smart.
cpmccarronSep 8, 2010
pssh, speak for yourself. I'm more than happy keeping the Dips**t Grid.
racheljtmSep 8, 2010
All smart everything
canyoucountSep 8, 2010
How about Smartfood popcorn? I think that stuff is kinda gross. Like, how do you make popcorn taste like not-popcorn?
derangedpenguinSep 8, 2010
They are having a blast out here in California with the first link in the smart grid chain, the home smart meter. It seems that it interferes with cell phones, security systems, car alarms, cordless phones, WiFi, wireless baby monitors... And most people don't seem to understand that if you run you AC from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM your bills will go up.
Still if we are going to have technologies like Eagle hacking windmills and solar power, as a significant part of our energy network, we need to be able to adapt the grid in real time. Never know when a California Condor might take out 100 KWatt wind turbine, by trying to glide through the blades or the Sun refuses to shine on that 1,000 Acre solar farm.
I can see in the future the government deciding when to turn your AC, T.V., Wii on or off.
danbarkerSep 8, 2010
You seem like you should listen to no agenda ( http://www.noagendashow.com )
durangotangSep 9, 2010
In the morning.
danbarkerSep 9, 2010
In the morning.
Closed AccountSep 9, 2010
Yeah, it's already been talked about by Carol Browner...Obama's czar.
The climate change science is clear...power companies need to control your use.
http://politics.usnews.com/news/energy/articles/2009/03/09/on-climate-change-the-science-has-just-become-incredibly-clear.html
Better means we need to take our existing lines and upgrade them. And then, smarter: We need to make sure that we're really moving electricity in the smartest way and using the most cost-effective electricity at the right time of day. Eventually, we can get to a system where an electric company will be able to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air conditioner won't operate at its peak, you'll still be able to cool your house, but that'll be a savings to the consumer. And so [we will be] giving people and companies a role in the management of how we use electricity.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
Closed AccountSep 9, 2010
Buried for citing a good source of news you didn't want. OMG!
If they called it a "control grid" it would sink like a lead balloon.
durangotangSep 9, 2010
From the article: "The private and public sectors have begun working toward common goals and have accepted that a collaborative effort is necessary to make smart grid a reality."
Collaborative effort means allowing the government access into what appliances you can use in your own home - and when - there are even proposals to have your thermostat under strict remote control. All this in the name of "green initiatives" and "carbon footprints." Go ahead and give up your freedom for the new buzz word, the "smart grid." These new world order assh**es are relentless.
darkshroudSep 9, 2010
At a certain point I'll be breaking or bypassing any smart meter they try to put on my home.
danbarkerSep 8, 2010
Why on earth would you want this? Just get power! Normal AC power... thats all you need.
lnterwebzSep 8, 2010
You see, a pimp's love is very different from that of a square.
dirtyfriesSep 8, 2010
Seems like most people jumped on this bandwagon after that big Northeast blackout a little while back...with the promise of a smart grid eliminating such occurrences.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
rmxzSep 8, 2010
Are all the old Digg articles broken with V4?
I try to bring up most any random old page on Digg like this one:
http://digg.com/news/gaming/Bunny_rabbit_bells_music_cuteness_overloaded
and it's telling me it has 0 diggs and 0 comments; despite showing a handful of the hundreds of comments that were once there.
But I guess that's not a payed-media-partner link so not likely digg v4 team cares?
richidSep 9, 2010Staff
I'll do it for $100. PayPal me.
c_calienteSep 9, 2010
Good thinking. Maybe Digg will have no cash for your next paycheck
stolemybikeSep 9, 2010
I'll throw in 50 dollars if you can keep the site going for a half hour without a broken axle.
afizzledbearSep 9, 2010
report the bug to the digg team
rmxzSep 9, 2010
LOL!
For the people who downvoted afizzledbear, surely you missed an implied /s in that joke. Or was he serious?
Based on the rest of the more important bug reports (bury feature broken, upcoming broken, etc) if you're not a major media publisher it seems unlikely they'd care.
thejokkerSep 9, 2010
The first thing they're working on is site stability, I doubt any bugs are getting much attention until they can keep the site up.
afizzledbearSep 9, 2010
Well I reported a bug and yet they responded to me, maybe its not a conspiracy
rmxzSep 9, 2010
@thejokker: "The first thing they're working on is site stability"
@afizzledbear: "Well I reported a bug and yet they responded to me"
Then things with digg4 are in even worse shape that I feared.
IMHO neither of those should be priorities compared to bringing back things like "bury" that made digg a better filter for interesting content than rss feeds & google news.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
canyoucountSep 9, 2010
I'm part of the digg v4 team, and while it's not really my area of the product and therefore my caring is not necessarily directly relevant, I care. FWIW!
hurrayforschoolSep 9, 2010
There was a time when everyone could be part of Digg. That time was 2 weeks ago. Enjoy your blood money.
canyoucountSep 9, 2010
I'm not sure I understand why "everyone" can't be a part of Digg now.. could you explain your perspective a bit further?
ozkrSep 9, 2010
"blood money"? that sounded overly dramatic, even for someone whose comment history consists of shoehorning "kevin" or "diggv4" in every f**king way possible.
life036Sep 9, 2010
Just goes to show: all you need to do is name something correctly to garner public support. The Obama administration could use this lesson.
eslamhi7Sep 9, 2010
Hei commendable on the subject Extravaganza
seanofSep 9, 2010
This article makes me wish there was still a burry button. It's nothing but a bunch of PR speak.
completnonsenseSep 9, 2010
Good article I thought. Biggest problem is the people that most need to read these articles wont!! Aggravating world we live in....
Closed AccountSep 9, 2010
The "smartgrid" is all bulls**t.
Sort of like President Odouche.....
elwoodbluesSep 9, 2010
Everything on Digg is either sponsored s**t, or PR content spun to look like a real story.
Kevin, make it stop.
You need to take the blame, and not blame your CTO for your business decision to launch this steaming pile directly into the face of your users.
hurrayforschoolSep 9, 2010
Sheep Confused By Angry Commenters, Want Digg Anyways
Despite not fully understanding what Digg has become, a recent survey found that the majority of complacent Diggers are actually retarded.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
ano233Sep 9, 2010
There would certainly be advantages, but I have also heard of many disadvantages. The "smart grid"TM is often touted as an improvement in security, despite the fact that it can apparently be hacked with less than $500 worth of equipment, with devastating consequences. Its supposed to improve "power grid reliability", by giving the power company (and possibly hackers) control of your home appliances. Overall I fear its just a ploy by the utilities/contractors to get "peak hour metering" implemented across the board and federal subsidies for augmenting their profits through purchase of massively marked up equipment & patents. Most of the "Smart Grid" articles I've read don't say anything about new/improved power plants, just tacking a bunch of computer components into the current grid to "improve" things. The one thing I've seen that I really like about it is that it is supposed to make some pretty serious allowances for Point of Use power generation (Wind,Solar,Off Peak Storage,etc), something that more than a few utilities have been fighting. But even this could be abused, I recall somewhere a state has a law requiring that all utilities provide for grid attached solar/wind home generation/payback but the primary utility for the state is basically ignoring the requirement. And another case where the utility would provide the equipment, but charged an obscene yearly fee for what basically amounts to a safety switch to keep the wind generator/solar panels from feeding power into downed power lines.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
nichesiteexpertSep 9, 2010
Americans confused by most things that have to do with 'smart'. Today, I met a high school graduate that was not only barely literate, but proud of the fact. 'Books are for losers' she said. I can't wait to see where she'll be in ten years. And this has become the norm. I'm truly scared for this country.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
h0v3rb1k3sSep 9, 2010
Books are for losers. Who actually says that in life?
melexeSep 9, 2010
digg is for hippies
goinggreenkitsSep 9, 2010
It's about time regulators got there heads out of the sand and started on this smarty pants Grid!
tamckissickSep 9, 2010
Nice article but I didn't find any actual information in there. Why not tell people how there are competing technologies for the smart grid that offer drastically different benefits to opposing sides of the game. The so called smart grid, the one you refer to and utilities push, is one of command control and demand response with very little savings from aggregate load sharing. The other one is more like the internet with one live, published price for power for each power location. This one never gets any news because it only benefits us end users.
This price is constantly and automatically updated based on the price for all the components like generation, transmission and distribution. Should a shortage occur to drive it higher, loads like appliances can automatically go into more economical operating modes, generators can turn on or ramp up, transmission lines can open up and distributed generation or storage systems can begin exporting to the grid. The best and smartest generation systems would even be able to learn enough about daily swings to predict usage fairly accurately to profit best and this is exactly what reduces transmission waste the most so we all benefit.
Should the price the drop (based on milli-second decisions), all those decisions can back off toward the other direction without any more info than this simple price change. If a transmission line breaks, the price only changes for those affected by it so those customers have the most incentive to cut back or generate more. If a sister transmission line can supply enough of the difference, it adds its cost into the mix and no customers even learn there was this 'major problem' unless they see that the price rose for a couple seconds. In this manner, no control is wielded over the customer and those customers who choose the smartest appliances, renewable energy systems or conservation methods will reap the most benefit. This is the incentive for people to adopt a technology like this.
The only losers are the utility company officials who want to maintain their monopoly over electricity prices.
Even in emergency times like what would have been traditional power outages, some users may choose to power their life support when prices temporarily go sky high. To them, it's better than losing power.