[sudo-discuss] Resilience: Re: Power grid: the internet of electricity:
Anon195714
anon195714 at sbcglobal.net
Tue Mar 26 18:58:31 PDT 2013
Resilience is the ability of a system to withstand shocks and "black
swan" events.
Right now we are seeing the wholesale destruction of systems that in the
past have been far more resilient. This is being done in the name of
profit one one hand, and convenience on the other.
There is no substitute for wires to carry electricity. Nicola Tesla's
broadcast power experiments in Colorado Springs caused disruptions in
nearby cities similar to what would occur from large solar flares. On a
small scale it can work, such as for resonant charging stations for
electric vehicles, built into every parking space with a meter (deposit
$3 to park, and optionally another $3 for a quick wireless recharge).
But it is highly likely that injecting huge quantities of energy into
the atmosphere, on the scale required for industrial civilization (think
of where your fork and spoon come from) would have unforeseen and
probably destructive ecological consequences.
So between here and some hypothetical Mr. Fusion machine in our
basements, we're stuck with wires.
The question is how to manage those wires so they, and the rest of the
power control infrastructure, don't become high-value targets.
The simplest solution from an engineering perspective, is neighborhood
power. Every block has its own grid, with solar roofs on every house, a
small battery pack in every house, and connections to the larger grid or
perhaps a shared natural gas turbine or nuclear battery of about 30 to
50 KW output. Now try to get that to happen with the present real
estate situation: it's a non-starter. A selfish ass halfway down one
street, would be sufficient to block it. Zoning codes wouldn't even
know what to do about it.
Municipal ownership of the wires on public rights-of-way would be a
great thing. Now try getting the voters to approve an eminent domain
buy-out of PG&E's wires, or an expensive project to run all new wires
under the streets.
The blunt fact is, WE the geeks, the engineers and technicians,
builders, makers, and hackers, have the smarts and the skills to come up
with something that will work and that will stand up to shocks. BUT the
hands that control the money flows have no interest or incentive to let
us do so.
This doesn't even require overt malevolence, just a "business as usual"
and "ho-hum" attitude, of the kind that is common among people who have
never worried about putting food on their own tables, much less
considered what life would be like with frequent power outages (some of
them lasting hours, some lasting days or weeks).
So frankly I'm at a loss for a conclusive answer to this one.
When it comes to resilient telecoms, we can set up community mesh and
back it up with small cheap solar panels to keep it running during power
outages.
But when it comes to power as such, for lights and fridges and cooking,
there is no equivalent of community mesh. Yet.
There are times when I think we'll just have to go through a major
catastrophe before we realize that we have to build resilient
infrastructure.
It took the Loma Prieta quake and videos of sections of the Bay Bridge
collapsed, before California got off its collective arse and built a new
span. But there are other instances where entire bridges, not
maintained due to stingy taxpayers and pandering politicians, simply
collapsed, even during rush hour.
This one happened five years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C31IlOHNzbM
If Al Qaeda or North Korea or a Hayward Fault quake hit the "smart
grid," there won't be any dramatic video. There'll just be darkness and
food going bad in our fridges.
Perhaps that would encourage people to go out at night and gaze at the
sky. Perhaps the awesome view of the Milky Way in all its splendor,
would inspire a new interest in space exploration, and with it, a new
interest in science and technology generally.
In any case it would be a good thing if the members of Bay Area
hackerspaces could put our heads together to come up with some practical
solutions to this one.
-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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