A new bill in the California Assembly would mandate that electricity utilities store 2.25% of peak demand load by 2014 and 5% by 2020. AB 2514 was introduced by Attorney General Jerry Brown and Assemblymember Nancy Skinner. If it passes, energy storage will become common in California and this will help create a smart grid. Continue reading →
dumb grid
The difference between the 20th century’s electricity grid and the 21st century’s “Smart Grid” is data and how it is used to manage energy services. Think what an opportunity that represents for the knowledge workers of the Bay Area! The traditional grid, or “dumb grid” if you like, was based on limited information and leaves Continue reading →
Think back to the age of telecom before the breakup of AT&T, before the Internet, before Facebook or Twitter. That’s about how antiquated America’s system for delivering electricity—the electrical grid—is today. In many parts of the country, the grid is so “dumb” that workers still have to walk from house to house to read the Continue reading →
The California Institute of Technology has identified the control limit and target date for world emissions. They note that we used 13 Trillion watts of electricity in 2000 and that usage will double to 26 Trillion watts by 2050! We will be doubling our use of our dumb grid but we can NOT afford to Continue reading →
Maine faces two starkly different choices about the future of its electrical system. On one hand is a plan by Central Maine Power to spend $1.5 billion on massive upgrades to the electric grid. This would make CMP’s current “dumb grid” even bigger and dumber; …On the other hand is an alternative proposal by GridSolar Continue reading →
The smart grid is coming. To understand it, let’s first examine the current dumb grid. You wake up Christmas morning. It is cold and, like everyone else, you turn up the heat. This creates a huge demand for power. Since energy prices are based on supply and demand, the price of power on Christmas morning Continue reading →
