Smart Grid
Yesterday, I sat in on the final day of the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium's semiannual conference (www.CalConnect.org). CalConnect is a consortium that promotes interoperability between dissimilar calendaring and scheduling systems. I was there to scout out their just unveiled xml serialization of ICalendar. I think we will use it a lot in buildings and on the smart grid.
Intelligent buildings filled with clever devices and intelligent systems will negotiate with the grid and with their occupants to provide new models for reliable power. The benefits to the grid will come from coordinating supply and demand using economic signals. The benefits to the buildings will be increased value by providing higher levels of amenities to their tenants and inhabitants for lower cost. The benefits to the tenants and occupants will be better services at the same or lower costs and more autonomy as they separate from grid dependency. The benefit to the clever devices will be longer life and more reliable operations from eliminating the power shocks that assail them now.
I have written before of the challenges of software for electric cars at home (Smart Cars at Home on the Grid). Today I want to expand the domain of those cars into the wider world. The minimal car software will have some way to make electronic purchases as it drives across the town and the country. The better car software will do much more.
The electric car may recharge while on the road. It can also re-sell power when on the road. How it decides...
Too many of the scenarios for electric cars on the smart grid talk only about the relationship between the single car in the home and the grid. These relationships are not the most important ones, and will not determine the successful integration of millions of electric vehicles into the grid. The relationships that matter are those between the cars and their drivers, their family plans, and the other cars in the household. Car software will be even more important than car performance...