Posted on 05/27/2010 8:23:53 AM PDT by day21221
An energy-saving trial that will shut down home appliances when peaks of demand threaten to overwhelm the network began this week.
About 300 homes in Sandwell in the West Midlands have received fridge-freezers that turn themselves off when the grid is overstretched. Altogether, 3,000 homes will take part in the two-year trial, run by npower.
Energy companies plan to offer grants and cheaper tariffs to encourage all households to switch to such appliances.
If all homes had smart fridges, Britain’s annual emissions would fall by two million tonnes, the equivalent of taking 700,000 cars off the road or closing a large coal-fired power station.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
GE Appliances Achieve ZigBee Certification Email This Post Add your comments
Related Stories Humana’s Chicago Offices Receive LEED Certification Timberland Gets First LEED Gold For Mall-Based Store Bosch Launches Green TV SpotsRelated TopicsBusiness-to-ConsumerConsumptionEfficiencyElectricityEnergy ManagementLabels & CertificationsMajor PlayersNorth AmericaSmart GridU.S.GE’s Appliances & Lighting divisions announced that they have received the ZigBee Smart Energy certification for their smart grid-enabled appliances.
ZigBee is a wireless protocol that allows smart grid-enabled appliances to communicate with utilities that have implemented Time-of-Use pricing. With Time-of-Use pricing protocols, utilities can communicate the current cost of electricity to appliances. Appliances can then reduce their energy use at times of increased demand (and, therefore, increased cost), decreasing the risk of power disruption and saving the consumer money. Utilities can also signal the appliances when pricing is at its lowest, allowing consumers to take advantage of these low-price periods to perform energy-intensive tasks at the lowest rates and at times of least electricity demand.
According to GE, the ZigBee certification “is a huge step in our strategy of supporting multiple protocols as the smart grid gets rolled out. With this technology, both consumers and the utilities will have more information and be able to make better decisions than ever about energy usage.”
When the government controls the provision of energy, it controls the lives of all citizens and the growth or failure of the nation’s economy. Everything else, including national defense, runs second when it comes to this single factor
Some large industrial customers, such as steel works, already have contracts that allow the national grid to disconnect them at times of peak demand in return for cheaper energy bills. The Sandwell trial is extending the idea to domestic appliances and measuring how much carbon dioxide will be saved for each additional home that joins the scheme.
Npower said that customers would not notice the system working and would be in no danger of losing the contents of the fridges and freezers.
A spokesman said appliances would switch themselves back on if their temperature rose above the recommended level.
He said the same technology could be used to control the charging of electric cars, which will begin to be mass-produced by the end of this year and will become eligible from January for £5,000 government grants. The emissions savings from switching to electric cars will depend on how successful power companies are in managing the potentially huge increase in demand for electricity.
Electric car owners will be able to negotiate a cheaper tariff in return for allowing their energy company to control when their batteries are charged.
The driver will simply plug in and specify when the car will be needed. The grid will ensure that the battery is full at that time.
Paul Lazarevic, managing director of RLtec, which supplied the dynamic demand technology for the trial, said the grid could even draw power back from electric car batteries in order to respond to surges in demand.
However, he said more research was needed into what effect this would have on the life of the batteries.
The npower trial is being conducted under the Government’s Carbon Emissions Reduction Target scheme, which obliges power companies to reduce energy consumption in the home by promoting efficient technology.
Meanwhile, Sony has launched a smart television that automatically dims and reduces power consumption when viewers look away from the screen.
The Bravia LX900 has a camera that uses face recognition technology to detect when viewers are looking down to read a book or have fallen asleep.
government rationing with smart grid ...
They have an off switch and you have no right to object.
Makes my Mondays during the summer a real "joy". :-|
does the smart tv notice when people turn their ears off?
Large industrial customers are trying to get lower prices for off peak demand.
The government can take it’s smart grid and try and sell it to Kenya. Oh wait, they won’t let Kenyans build power plants. Weird, I wonder why.
If CO2 is your God, then nuclear power is your savior.
The Bravia LX900 has a camera that uses face recognition technology to detect when viewers are looking down to read a book or have fallen asleep.
yes, I saw that, mostly useless green crapo.
People sleep with their eyes open, it’s called daydreaming.
But how would they know if you had your ears closed.
2010-05-20
Smart Grids – The Governmental Approach
By Emma Naylor
UK
Scott Blake Harris is the General Council for the US Department of Energy, and has recently spoken out at the NGU US summit (hosted by GDS International). He was nominated in the position by President Barack Obama in March 2009, and was confirmed by the United States Senate in May 2009. He focused his address on the $4 billion investment into smart grids and renewables across the US.
“This is an unrivaled opportunity to develop a greater network of peers - the creation of a dynamic, collaborative community of thought leaders focused on consumer participation in the Smart Grid and the role each of us will play is key.”
Scott spoke at the most recent NGU US summit, a closed event which brings together more than 50 leading executives and whose sole purpose is to discuss the future of the industry in the US, with the worlds glare firmly on America’s energy futures and increased pressure for green solutions he did not disappoint.
From an operational perspective, many utilities are making their “smart grid” investments in the distribution network. To fully take advantage of the potential still to be unlocked from investments into smart grids it is imperative to improve reliability and stability while accommodating new revenue models for utilities.
“This is an unrivaled opportunity to develop a greater network of peers - the creation of a dynamic, collaborative community of thought leaders focused on consumer participation in the Smart Grid and the role each of us will play is key.”
The big challenge is how to engage the community and utilities together into a full-throttled drive to create the optimal Smart Grid solutions that will reduce energy costs for consumers and utilities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and build national energy security. The stakes are high, and it’s not a given that the Smart Grid will be built in the most intelligent and cost-effective ways. Those Utilities which are to receive Smart Grid funding are concerned on the ability to deliver especially when looking at the bandwidth capabilities needed to tackle the smart grid initiatives, and when faced with a short time frame of three years. Working together will be key, agreed the NGU Committee, we are capable of achieving the goals it is now time to prove it.
But the advantages to smart grid implementation for the consumer are easy to measure; Jeff Johnson of Constellation Energy stated that by informing customers of peaking prices during the day, they are able to reduce electricity consumption by as much as 20%. As technology around the household increases the need for an effective way to measure output is becoming more important, with multiple TV’s and computers now the norm in the average household monitoring output will be essential.
Also taking a stand was Cyrus Wadia who focused on the technical implementations of smart grid technology including T&D to an audience including invited representatives from Alcatel lucent, Itron, Hp, PV Powered and Smart Synch who came to share their thought leadership with the senior executive community.
“Smart meters with two-way fixed communications (AMI) enable utilities to capture information/metrics rapidly and make business decisions faster than ever before. They also facilitate the integration of functional units within utilities and open the door for greater customer engagement and communications.”
If government investment into smart grids has made it the technology of the future meetings such as the NGU US are necessary to ensure a collaborative driving force in implementing the right strategies.
Barack Obama Admits: Energy Prices Will Skyrocket Under Cap And Trade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqHL404zhcU
Ultimately this will result in everyone and their brother purchasing multiple gasoline generators and pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere than the Greenies could hever have conceived was possible.
Oh my, more propaganda, I get to read it again, naw, already read the crap..
Maybe we should ask Spain how their green economy is going, now that we have the facts leaked to us. We just bought a new refrigerator to replace our 14 year old one. It was 3 CU Feet smaller and used $3 a year more electricity. Seems like there might be a technology bottom in there somewhere.
It is stupid to think people don’t turn off appliances when they leave. We turn off our AC when we leave, don’t you? Doesn’t your computer automatically shut down when you stop using it? yOu turn off lights when you leave the room?
Although I do turn on some lights overnight, and I’m pretty sure no one is out there then.
If CO2 and smart grids are your religion then nuclear power is your savior.
hmmm...my smart-grid enabled TV seems to only shut down when Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity is on....
Oh wait, they won’t let Kenyans build power plants.
And, if they wouldn’t let Kenyans out of Kenya we wouldn’t have the problem we are having now in government.
Yeah, that’s just what I want - a refrigerator that turns itself off on demand. For how long? How often? Is the power company going to reimburse me for food that spoils, like frozen goods that melt? Short interruptions shouldn’t be a big deal - the fridge will just run a little longer when it comes back on to get temps back down to normal. If the doors are kept closed modern fridges will actually stay quite cold for quite a while. Still don’t much care for the idea, though.
No. In fact, it doesn't shut down until a couple of days after the system mains have gone offline. This box has not been powered off since February.
/johnny
You WILL be on the grid and they WILL monitor and control your energy use.And no matter how much you conserve the monthly bill will go up because the revenue must be maintained!
OR WE COULD JUST HAVE A REVOLUTION AND KICK ALL THE STUPID GREENIES AND STATISTS OUT OF POWER.
Rev 2.0 of the software will also shut down the screen when it observes the viewer with a heavy object in his hand, reaching back in an arc whose plane intersects the screen.
Also controls the food you have supplied yourself with.
Senate bill S-510 is intended to stop all gardens- orchards- probably even hunting.
ANYTHING that Mother Nature can provide—we cannot have on our own.
People basically work from 8 AM to 5 PM.
Give some time for commuting home-—
Then there is a MASSIVE surge in electrical comsumption with all those commuters plugging in their little plastic grocery carts called ELECTRIC CARS. Same commuters start dinner, turn on TV & get up on computers while dinner is cooking. Big surge in usage....nationwide.
Sooooo- the system will shut down until the power pull recedes....& when would that be? midnight? 2 AM?? 2 days later?? Next week?
I have tried & tried to get firm numbers on HOW LONG does it take for these puddle jumper cars to recharge?? Cannot get a straight answer.
The most common answer? “OVERNIGHT”.
Is that 6 hours?
8 Hours?
10 Hours??
12 Hours??
How many KWH does the car require to be fully recharged?
I cannot get that answer, either.
I know how many KWH I use each month to run this property. I calculate what each KWH costs me.
LONG BEFORE I would even consider purchasing anything close to an electric car-—I want these answers.
All I get is a complete run-around.
IF the system is going to shut down when overloaded—whose car will be the one that gets recharged? They cannot ALL get back on line at the same time!
I don’t like one single aspact of this Smart Meter crap & Smart Grid theory. Over 5 million “Smart meters” were installed in Bay Area of San Fran. They are severely overcharging some customers—undercharging others—installed backwards in others—installed improperly in others. Shove it down our throats—& then find out later where the holes are in the technology. This is the same thinking as jumping off the pier without knowing how deep the murky water really is.
It is more control, with no accountability from the power company nor the regulators.
It is a screwing without even an offer of buying me dinner!!
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