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Author Topic: One-fiftieth of the US grid becomes conscious...  (Read 2689 times)

Bob Wallace

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One-fiftieth of the US grid becomes conscious...
« on: May 28, 2013, 07:10:57 PM »
The State of Florida just completed an $800 million project to make their grid smart.

Quote
The Maytag repairman could be getting some company in Florida. Last year alone, servicemen at Florida Power & Light sat tight more than 42,000 times as smart grid technology identified and solved power outages, many of them caused by problems inside of a home instead of by a fault on the utility’s system.
....
 FPL did not install any completely new systems, but installed 4.5 million smart meters and more than 10,000 new intelligent devices across its territory.
....
Like other utilities that are making use of smart meters, FPL is able to remotely “ping” the meter to see if it’s working. If a meter sends out a last gasp signal, the outage management system creates a new event before a customer calls. But if a customer does call, the utility can check to see if the outage is caused by the utility or something in the home, such as a breaker that’s open. Before the digital meters, the servicemen would have to go to the home only to then find out the problem was inside of the home. Not anymore.

“We knew that the number [of problems being inside the home] existed,” said Olnick, “but we had no idea it would be as high as it was.”

 

Fine, you say.  That saves a lot of service truck fuel.  But how about electricity?

Quote
The utility’s distribution performance and diagnostic center ... brings together engineers, software developers and business analyst to leverage the reams of data coming off of the smart grid.

A transmission performance and diagnostic center is monitoring 500 substations remotely. Engineers are also using algorithms to measure voltage for predictive maintenance of transformers.

This is going to give engineers the ability to determine exactly where distribution losses are occurring.  Efforts can go to making improvements which will bring the most bang for the buck.  Transformers which are not cooling down because of EVs charging at night can be easily identified and swapped out with larger capacity units.  (Heat is wasted electricity.) 

Information will let utilities chip away at their inefficiency problems and make it easier to abandon fossil fuels.


Quotes from:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/here-comes-the-apps-florida-power-light-finishes-800m-smart-grid

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Re: One-fiftieth of the US grid becomes conscious...
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2013, 05:09:28 PM »
If this trend continues, by 2021, the U.S. grid will achieve a level of consciousness exceeding it's citizens.  ;)

Bob Wallace

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Re: One-fiftieth of the US grid becomes conscious...
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2013, 07:18:26 PM »
You've been watching Fox TV, haven't you?    :'(