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Tuesday, May 19

Grid Unlock

It's not a secret that our energy usage is overtaxing our production (and will be seriously threatened if not overwhelmed as the population continues to drastically expand, developing nations begin to match first-world energy usage levels and easily tapped energy supplies shrink). One band-aid for the problem was touched upon in the most recent Discover issue (which isn't online yet, so I'm linking to a parallel article).

Boulder, Colorado is running an experiment with a modern "smart grid" and new technologies that looks very promising. The program boils down to a number of points:

- Customers of the utility have their houses upgraded to "smart" status that allows for computer control via in-home controls or over the Internet of most of the major appliances as well as giving online real-time reports of how their homes are using electricity. This allows people to, for example, turn their thermostats up or down from their work computer or cell phone if their schedules change.

- The utility keeps customers updated (currently via their Web site or wireless messaging) of the status of the grid and when electricity is being supplied to the grid by renewable (in this case, wind) sources. A future proposal (which I like) is an "ambient light" in the house (a glowing orb or some such) that glows green when the grid is using renewable energy and red when it is using conventional power plants or being overtaxed.

- Customers can program their houses to use energy-intensive appliances (like dishwashers, laundry machines and rechargeable battery banks) only when the grid is using renewable energy.

- Customers with plug-in hybrids (which should be a wave of future cars) can not only set their cars to charge only during "green" times, but can leave their cars connected to the grid to act as additional energy sources during "red" times, acting as storage banks to ease strains on the grid by "selling" their stored electricity back to the utility (or rather, having it deducted from their bill), offsetting the cost of the hybrid.

The experiment faces a number of major hurdles. The technology isn't cheap (not even counting the cost of a hybrid). It relies on a certain level of computer-aptitude (I think this sounds fantastic, but my grandmother, who doesn't own a DVD player, let alone a computer or smart phone, would think it was horribly frustrating). And even some of those who are savvy enough to participate in such a system will resist for personal reasons (the experiment has already met resistance because a necessary component is allowing the utility to determine how you're using your electricity and giving them the technical capability to change your appliance settings).

Despite that, I'm hoping the experiment does well. It will determine whether a larger program is rolled out in other cities.

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