When do you want that?

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One of the most fundamental acts of negotiating services is when something should occur. One would guess that this has been already well established, well completed. I know I assumed so when I was talking about the fundamental information that we needed to add for scheduling in oBIX 1.1. “You know that thing you click on to put something on your calendar? It is an ICalendar format. Corporate scheduling systems already use it. People already use it. The conference room is already scheduled using it. Let’s use it for scheduling building systems.

I made promises. We’ll be done quickly. Why don’t you use it to add scheduling to OpenADR? Why don’t we use it for scheduling prices. Sounds good, but this simple function, surprisingly, is not yet ready for use....

What would you recommend?

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Divvying Up Grid Interoperability

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The NIST Grid Interoperability Workgroups began by splitting into work groups along traditional market segments. I think the initial cuts (I2G, B2G, H2G&V, T&D) (Industry, Building, Home (and vehicle) to Grid, and Transmission & Distribution) were necessary, I think keeping them makes it far too easy to pave the cow paths, to streamline existing market models while allowing minimal room for new markets to develop. As I look across the groups, they feel to me as if they are split up incorrectly. The home deserves the same DR possibilities as does the office. A hospital may want the same grid information as does the data center. The privacy liability incurred by the utility developing intimate knowledge of the home operations may be as great as they would incur in a bank.
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Free markets are Live Markets

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The Wall Street Journal looked at Texas Energy price increases this year and got nearly everything wrong. The big changes in electrical prices in Texas this year mirror the price changes in all energy markets. It is unclear to me how people think that *any* industry, no matter how regulated, can repeal supply and demand for its primary supplies. Some are arguing that these price changes argue for extended market regulation. The regulated energy market is not the natural order; we have a regulated market structure only because nothing else made sense in 1908 when the current model was created in Chicago..
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The New Privacy Advocates

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Last week, I wrote of a new concern with privacy arising and data archiving that young adults now have in “she never wants an electric car”. Regular commenter Michaela notes
My sample of two (my daughters 13 and nearly 16) have a very different point of view. . . . They are big Facebook and MySpace fans. They say It’s a trade off worth the giving up privacy to keep up with their friends. . . .they are much more aware of it than most kids (or adults for that matter). They don't care. Their only concern is really keeping info from Mom and Dad :).
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