It is easy to think we are playing the end game, but we are really working on the early stages of smart energy.
Smart grids may end at the edges of the grid, they may know no bounds, i.e., ZigBee and SEP, or they may end at the meter. Beyond the meter may be a collection of dumb systems, a minimal collection of defined systems with defined responses, or a micro-grid with its own economy, and own dynamics. I think that every node...
If we are not careful, smart grids are in direct collision with the bill of rights. Some smart grid activities define or enable business practices for balancing energy supply and demand. There is a direct link between commonly accepted business practices and some definitions of our constitutional rights. With the best of intentions, we may be casually removing significant barriers to some of our most cherished freedoms...
I am always intrigued by bio-batteries and bio-generation. Every now and then, I read a report, or talk to someone in passing, whose work is far off the beaten electrical engineering path. I am always especially interested when I learn that one of these companies has been funded, meaning they have been able to demonstrate something working, even if only once for one person. Most of them will never be able to provide grid-scale energy; but I think that will not be able to solve our energy problems at grid scale, unless...
But there’s no way to store energy, he said. What he should have said is that there are few ways to store energy at grid scale. Grids, and microgrids, have two approaches to storing energy. They can store it in something that produces electricity, or they can store it in any format that provides a service to its customers. The closer we get to the end users of energy, the more options we have to store energy. The most critical short term goal of smart grids might be to transfer as many incentives for energy storage to the end nodes of the grid as possible as soon as possible.