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“Dinosaurs ARE pretty cool”

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I came across this great IBM video yesterday via Andy Stanford-Clark.

The video explains, far better than I could ever do, why Smart Grids are a good idea – and to get full value, you need to watch it until the “Dinosaurs ARE pretty cool” comment!

Comments

  2. says

    “The utility grid sends a constant stream of electricity to your home.” Huh? I totally don’t get it. That sounds patently false to me, Tom.

    There’s a concept here that I’m missing. The guys at IBM are not exactly clueless.

    To me, the fact that electricity flows from a generator to your home only when you flick on a switch – and only to the extent that is needed by the device (the demand) – is one of the major wonders of this 80 year old system. Isn’t supply already perfectly synchronized with demand?

  4. says

    Well, in fact, current grid provide electricity on demand, not all the time as it is said in the video. Power capacity is what has to be available all the time in case you need it, but the energy isn’t delivered to you house this way. Moreover… it can’t be delivered unless you ask for it.

    If you switch on a light, there is an additional energy consumption, which causes a (small) reduction on the frecuency of the grid. In order to get back to the normal frecuency of the grid, a new power generator starts or a working one, powers up.

    The system is as smarter sa the pizza system suggested by the boy: the pizza eater/energy consumer asks for a pizza/electricity by phoning/switching on, and de pizzeria/utility sends the pizza/electricity.

    What would make the grid smarter would be the posibility of swapping the way of the order and the pizza/energy. Imagine: pizza eater cooking his own pizzas and sending leftover pizzas to other pizza eaters (or the pizzeria). That can be posible, in a limited way, in the electrical grid but imposible in the pizza system.

    My mother tongue isn’t english, so sorry about my probable language mistakes.

    In any case, first time I comment on Greenmonk… and interesting blog as I am very interesting in energy and the future (r)evolutions in that sector.

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