Microgrids

[Surferbeetle]

From MIT's Technology Review: Lifeline for Renewable Power

In one of the more advanced pilot projects testing such a system, the Minneapolis-based utility Xcel Energy and several vendors are investing $100 million to install a smart-grid infrastructure in Boulder, CO. These days, a 115-person Xcel crew is out full time, installing two-way electric meters at 50,000 houses. Homeowners are getting software that lets them view and manage their energy consumption on the Web, and some of their appliances are being fitted with switches that will let the utility shut them off remotely during periods of high demand.

Smart-grid technologies could reduce overall electricity consumption by 6 percent and peak demand by as much as 27 percent. The peak-demand reductions alone would save between $175 billion and $332 billion over 20 years, according to the Brattle Group, a consultancy in Cambridge, MA. Not only would lower demand free up transmission capacity, but the capital investment that would otherwise be needed for new conventional power plants could be redirected to renewables. That's because smart-grid technologies would make small installations of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels much more practical. "They will enable much larger amounts of renewables to be integrated on the grid and lower the effective overall system-wide cost of those renewables," says the Brattle Group's Peter Fox-Penner.

[Surferbeetle]

From Business Week, by Katie Fehrenbacher: Securing the Smart Power Grid from Hackers

Imagine if the havoc caused by Internet viruses and wormS—downed web sites, snatched credit card data, and so forth—were unleashed on the power grid's critical infrastructure. The results could include targeted blackouts, tampering with power generation (including nuclear plants), or the use of energy consumption data for malicious intent. For while a smart power grid, which leverages information technology to add more intelligence to the electricity network, will give consumers and utilities more control over energy consumption, the transformation from analog to digital will bring to the grid a threat that plagues the Internet: hacking.

Crucial to maintaining security will be establishing industry standards. At the smart grid policy meeting held last week, FERC Acting Chairman Jon Wellinghoff issued a statement calling for the development of "standards to ensure the reliability and security, both physical and cyber, of the electric system." While FERC doesn't itself develop standards, the agency will be asking for input from standards bodies that work on security in the Internet, engineering, and electronics industries. Over the next month and a half, companies and consumers can offer their thoughts as to the direction the standards will take.

The second factor needed to secure the smart grid will be an open platform. This sounds counterintuitive, but as Pacific Crest's Schuman explains, the most robust security systems out there are largely based on already established open standards. In order for third-party developers to be able to contribute their best solutions to a smart power grid, it must be based on an open platform as well.

Ultimately the hurdles to securing the smart grid are not impossibly high. The benefits of offering consumers and utilities more control over energy consumption—reducing energy use and carbon reduction—far outweigh the security concerns.

Long term FOB's with resupply issues might be great test beds...

[SethB]

Insulation and right-sizing of cooling equipment can cut energy use for space cooling by up to 80%. A smart micro-grid could flatten energy demand to the point that capital costs (in the form of generators or even TGER units) could be significantly reduced and overall energy consumption reduced slightly as well.

This could reduce the amount of logistical support needed to engage in expeditionary warfare by a considerable amount, and more importantly, would have secondary and tertiary effects as the reduced need for fuel burrows through CSS requirements, including significantly reduced requirements for force protection.

While reading a paper by Colin Gray, I found the following quote by Henry E. Eccles, originally published in 1965:

[A]ll logistic activities naturally tend to grow to inordinate size, and unless positive control is maintained, this growth continues until, like a ball of wet snow, a huge accumulation of slush obscures the hard core of essential combat support, and the mass becomes unmanageable. This snowball effect permeates the entire structure of military organization and effort.

A smart grid is also superior when attempting to integrate renewable energy sources with fossil fuel generation.

[selil]

I'll just say it. There currently is NO POSSIBLE WAY to secure the power grid completely. Dr. Wiess just testified to congress on this issue on last Tuesday.

[Ken White]

I'll just say it. There currently is NO POSSIBLE WAY to secure the power grid completely. Dr. Wiess just testified to congress on this issue on last Tuesday.

Been known for a while so Plan b has to be used...

[Ron Humphrey]

Been known for a while so Plan b has to be used...

Make sure that whatever pain they bring hurts them too and preferably can be clearly seen as hurting a whole lot worse than us

[selil]

Make sure that whatever pain they bring hurts them too and preferably can be clearly seen as hurting a whole lot worse than us

Currently that is the primary protection. Mutually assured destruction is inherently part of the equation when dealing with nation-state on nation-state. When terrorism enters the picture that becomes a bit of thorny issue.

[Presley Cannady]

I'll just say it. There currently is NO POSSIBLE WAY to secure the power grid completely. Dr. Wiess just testified to congress on this issue on last Tuesday.

So long as any joker can cook up heavy duty explosives with household items, of course not. And given that even the most compact, redundant generation solutions still have easily countable nodes, you're still at risk for catastrophic failures. Theoretically, you should be able to reduce irrevocable catastrophic risk to a negligible degree, usually by combining some sort of redundancy strategy like local generation, layered grids, etc., with a well planned, temporary evacuation to some place...say...up to fifty miles away.