From the by M.D. Fletcher |
October 2009 |
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I'm happy to report that I finally learned enough about my new cell phone to be able to successfully perform a number of tasks, including answering it and calling out on it. I even know how to send a text message. Now, if I just knew somebody to send a text message to I'd be set. But now that I'm as technologically advanced as your average 7-year od, I figure I'm ready to launch into this "Smart Grid" concept that's the next really big thing for the electrical utility industry in the United States. The fact is that most electric distribution utilities, even the big ones, don't currently have anything like a "smart" system. We use essentially the same old "dumb" system that's been around since the First World War, e.g. the lights go out, you call us, we go fix it and the lights come back on. Now, you may think I have a big red button on my desk that I use to make the lights blink and dim and go out for absolutely no good reason, especially when your 're watching your favorite episode of "Wife Swap", but you would only be partially correct. Yes, the lights do blink and they dim, and they especially go out right when it's absolutely the worst time and finally, yes I do have a big red button on my desk. But these facts are not really related. You see, the big red button on my desk is a "dumb" button. Oh sure, smacking my big red button is pretty darn therapeutic for me, particularly after I receive yet another nasty gram from one or another of my dedicated and more often than not misguided critics, but my repeated and vigorous banging of my button doesn't really have any effect on the operation of the electric distribution system, at least none of which I am aware. And mores' the pity for it. But that's beside my point and, assuming I have one, it would be something along the lines of explaining that virtually all distribution systems like Columbus Electric rely on notification from our consumers to recognize problems on the system. If you don't tell us about it, we figure everything is hunky-dory fine. |
The information we get from our technology currently in place is all after-the-fact. That means that the meters and relays located at our substations and elsewhere on our system can tell us something happened in the past but they cannot tell us in terms of real time what is going on right now. That's what we want to change. We want to be able to communicate on a real-time basis not only with all of our members but also with our power supplier. We want to receive hour-by-hour and even minute-by-minute price signals from our wholesaler and in turn instantly send you those same signals right through your meter into your PC sitting on your kitchen table. We want you to know exactly how much energy you're using and when's the best and cheapest time to use it. We want to be able to continually monitor the operation of our system to help us take care of problems before they get to your house and mess up your routine. If some poor soul for whatever reason decides to deviate from the well-traveled path of I-10 right through one or more of our structures, we want to know about it pretty much at the same time he does. If it's raining lightning, we want to know where it's hitting the ground and where it's going. If wind sheer blows down a baker's dozen of our poles along the border like it did last month, we want to know exactly where they are laying on the ground, exactly where our crews are, exactly what they are going to need to fix it and how long it's going to take. And we want you to be able to log in from your kitchen table and know how long it's likely to be before your lights come back on. That's a smart distribution system. Now, if you couple that with a smart transmission system and a smart generation system, you do all kinds of really good things like reduce losses, improve reliability, maximize resources, increase security and promote infrastructure integrity. That's the future of the electric utility industry and now that I am basking in my advanced state of technological achievement, I'm really looking forward to it. I figure it's going to just be the cat's pajamas. But I'm keeping my big red button. |
