If only I had bought $100 in IBM in 1950, today I’d have… The same statement gets made about almost every big corporation: If only I’d known then what I know now. I can’t think of anything else to regret, so I might as well regret my poor investment (non)decisions. Whether Wall Street or personal purchases, investments are the easiest thing in the world to build a life of regret around.
Installing clean generating devices at my home is an investment. But then, every extra dollar spent on an energy-efficient appliance is worth four dollars worth of solar generating capacity. That’s investment, too.
Just now IBM is poised to be a major player in what many see as the future of the power grid, namely using the existing grid infrastructure in more intelligent (machine and human) and efficient ways. The vision is profound: using software and hardware combinations, train the grid to adjust automatically in real time to fluctuations in both supply and demand. The software would be trainable, so that over time it becomes less reactive and more predictive, based on inputs from many sources. The variable inputs from solar and wind facilities could be better collected and routed by a system that could see and foresee peak demand times and locations. The grid may not need much rebuilding at all, but rather it needs more and better automation and support.
Ultimately, we might see appliances in homes connected to a home internet gateway, sending data to a nearby collection point, announcing the home’s needs and power usage, and importantly announcing whether the energy is being used during peak or off-peak hours, allowing for variable pricing for those applications that aren’t tied to a specific time of day, as is true of most homes that use washing machines, dryers, stoves and heating in a somewhat arbitrary way. Power purchasers would be able to control costs by opting to use energy in off-peak hours, when businesses and factories are closed for the day.
Eventually, the grid system will learn the patterns of use that are too complex to figure out now, with the impossible deluge of data being collected. An intelligent grid system could route power around the grid in ways that would not tax the system as is being done now, which is getting worse as more solar and variable wind systems come on line.
For a great visual, see IBM’s site here: How It Works: The Intelligent Utility Network
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