[sudo-discuss] Power grid: the internet of electricity: was Re: Sudo room should be about creating
Anon195714
anon195714 at sbcglobal.net
Tue Mar 26 18:14:49 PDT 2013
Anthony, I know you didn't mean "no grids," but I was concerned that a
quick skim of this discussion by anyone who didn't know the material in
depth, might lead to the wrong conclusions.
For an example of the danger of over-centralization:
Consider the conversion of the public switched telephone network to
VOIP, in light of the desire on the part of telcos to reap a huge
honking windfall by selling off their vast real estate holdings. AT&T
owns about 5,000 central offices, at least one in just about every
medium or larger city in the USA. Comcast has FIVE nationwide, and AT&T
would love to do likewise, and conversion to VOIP will accomplish just
that.
I'm sure you know what it's called when you centralize something by a
factor of 1,000 to 1:
"A high-value target."
Something that's just begging to be hit hard and taken out, by a crazed
dictator or an international terrorist group, or perhaps by a few
sociopaths of the same kind who run ID theft rings and bank-card skimmer
rings, or perhaps by someone out for the sheer thrill of smashing and
wrecking.
The plans for the "smart power grid" will produce more high-value
targets: regional power control systems, centrally managed, all
internet-connected and just daring the assholes of the world to hit them.
Already, smart meters provide a tasty treat for predators. I'm aware of
a couple of vulnerabilities that haven't been published, that would
enable a single person with a grudge to black out a neighborhood for a
couple of days. This situation will compound as smart meters, smart
grids, and stupid regulatory officials converge.
All of this over-centralization, and over-reliance on "smart" things, is
causing our entire society to crawl further and further out on a limb
that becomes more and more fragile every day. Sooner than later,
something will break, bigtime.
In a very practical sense, we have to be concerned with resilience.
About which more in my next post.
-G.
=====
On 13-03-26-Tue 5:28 PM, Anthony Di Franco wrote:
> To be clear, I don't mean to say "no grids!1!!1!!!" but just "use
> large-scale grids only for what they're best for in the context of a
> broader heterogeneous system, not for almost everything as they are
> now, and take into account in a rigorous way overall system efficiency
> and other concerns like vulnerability to failures both routine and
> rare and corruptibility of the social systems that grow up around the
> technical systems."
>
> I remember discussing these points a few times in the past with you,
> George, and Hol, and others around sudo room; might we like to get
> some documentation together on interesting specifics? A section of the
> wiki maybe, where we can throw ideas up about the details and see what
> sticks?
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 5:06 PM, Anon195714 <anon195714 at sbcglobal.net
> <mailto:anon195714 at sbcglobal.net>> wrote:
>
>
>
> A lot of the arguement against power grids is ultimately rooted in
> opposition to having our energy supply controlled by distant
> corporations whose decisions are not sustainable and not in our
> interests.
>
> I agree that over-dependence on greedy corporations for vital
> infrastructure, merely for the sake of convenience, is a shortcut
> to servitude. Google is the worst offender, with its seductive
> Gmail and Google Voice offering "convenience" in exchange for
> intensive and intrusive surveillance, not only of those who use
> the services, but of everyone they communicate with. (Worst of
> all, Google Glass: "become a volunteer surveillance drone!")
>
> The model we should be looking toward, to manage the power grid,
> is one of municipally-owned transmission infrastructure (the wires
> along the streets), and diversification of power producers (from
> individual households to the existing power utilities). Everyone
> would be paid the same rate for power they "upload" to the grid,
> and everyone would pay the same rate for power they "download."
> This would immediately level the playing field and provide an
> enormous incentive for all manner of renewable and new-tech power
> generation.
>
> Further, the municipal ownership model should also apply to the
> wired telecoms grid: telephone and internet. (Even your mobile
> device is only "wireless" for the last half mile at most; the rest
> of the way it's as wired as my antique dial phones.) All of these
> things are using the public rights-of-way along the streets; they
> are arguably public rights-of-way in themselves, and as such,
> should be owned by the public.
>
> The municipal internet of electricity would entail each local
> power producer (household or larger) having small storage capacity
> on-site, and a switching synchronized inverter to connect to the
> grid. An onboard microprocessor with an analog voltage sensors
> would monitor line power to determine when power should be
> uploaded to the grid or downloaded from the grid. Simple "net
> metering" would keep track of the billing.
>
> The small decentralized battery packs would act primarily as
> buffers, to level out power production and consumption among
> users. Overnight and over multiple cloudy days, and during peak
> demand hours, the decentralized solar would be supplemented by
> other power sources such as micro-reactors and natural gas turbines.
>
> The uniform pricing mechanism would prevent predatory "arbitrage"
> of electricity, and provide the incentive to install solar panels
> on every solar-accessible flat surface, even on bus shelters and
> other street kiosks.
>
> The point-of-production microprocessors would be isolated from the
> internet to prevent cyber-attacks against the grid: the best kind
> of "smart grid" is one that self-regulates locally without being
> vulnerable globally.
>
> I should also mention: Yes, electric automobiles can provide
> household power storage in the absence of having a grid, but a)
> not everyone owns or even wants an automobile, b) if you've
> drained your car battery pack overnight to power your house, it's
> not available the next morning to get you to work, and c) even if
> everyone could afford a new electric car, there are good reasons
> to reduce car ownership and usage in favor of bicycles, scooters,
> motorcycles, buses, and trains.
>
> Beyond that, we should not be destroying our civic infrastructure
> in favor of requiring everyone to have their own i-Things or do
> without. Public phones, public bathrooms (do you really want to
> carry an i-Pee around?), public drinking fountains, public benches
> for sitting, public transport, etc.: are all civic goods that make
> the public sphere more user-friendly and accessible. A public
> power grid is another example, as with public water supply, public
> sewage treatment, and refuse disposal: life without those things
> would be worse than miserable.
>
> Don't destroy it: reclaim it, revision it, and rebuild it.
>
> -G.
>
>
> =====
>
>
>
> On 13-03-26-Tue 3:41 PM, Anthony Di Franco wrote:
>> Production of alternative energy can be and for most reasons
>> probably should be much less centralized, equivalently,
>> smaller-scale, than production of energy mostly is now.
>> (Off-grid, as you mention, but very literally.)
>> Large-scale up front + large, complex distribution networks is
>> revealed as an obsolete architecture; large scale distribution
>> networks become relatively less important, so even if the answer
>> to your question is no, which it probably isn't given
>> crowdfunding and other disintermediated finance gaining momentum,
>> it's moot, or at least of much less relative importance.
>> Put another way, when the most important goal is maximum
>> efficiency rather than maximum centralization, large upfront
>> capital investment + large, complex distribution network is
>> stupid; proper accounting
>> <https://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com/> of all
>> costs and benefits in a global rather than piecewise local sense
>> reveals this now for agriculture, manufacturing, energy, ...
>> Even now, buffering between supply and demand is a constraint on
>> grid architecture leading to great economic demand within the
>> current paradigm for distributed storage / production of energy
>> according to someone who came through sudo room whose name
>> escapes me.
>> This loosely-drafted email brought to you by the slogan
>> <http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/11/eaas-non-rival-goods-vs-rival-goods.html>,
>> "localize production, virtualize everything else"
>> <http://www.miiu.org/wiki/Resilient_Things_by_Top-Level_Category> and
>> the acronym STEMI <http://www.accelerationwatch.com/mest.html>
>> compression
>> <http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2008/11/stemi.html>.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Romy Ilano <romy at snowyla.com
>> <mailto:romy at snowyla.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Is it possible to create alternative energy distribution
>> networks (biofuels/solar/ wind etc) that replace mainstream
>> petrol and natural gas based energy without a large financial
>> sector?
>>
>> the vc system that funds these alternative energy start-ups
>> piggy backs off the investment banks, etc. and big private
>> equity and institutional investment funds. vcs are like a fly
>> on the @ss of a financial hippo.
>>
>> I haven't heard people discuss off-grid that much in the tech
>> talks I've been to( which are excellent). Is there a
>> conversation here that would show how off grid is a viable
>> alternative, even if it's not a big money solution?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 1:56 PM, <hol at gaskill.com
>> <mailto:hol at gaskill.com>> wrote:
>>
>> this talk about imports and exports always reminds me of
>> energy flow
>>
>> compare 2011
>> https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2012/Oct/images/25306_LLNLUSEnergy2011650.jpg
>>
>>
>> with 2002
>> http://www.hubbertpeak.com/us/images/us_energyflow2002.jpg
>>
>> fascinating
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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