31 Comments

1. Cap'n Rusty:

Swell. Let’s make the nation’s power grid too big to fail.

Nov 2, 2009 - 3:50 am 2. Dwight:

It does not say anything in the Constitution about power grids. This is another commie plot, as was the electrification of the country when it happened. What could be more communal? It led directly to the election of Obama, to be followed soon by the end of our culture. But not to worry; I’m boning up on my flint-working skills and am making atalatls from saplings in my yard.

Nov 2, 2009 - 4:47 am 3. cedarhill:

Cap’n is right. You will never conserve and control your way to energy when you need it. Build 400 nuclear power stations and you’ll have cheap, reliable and clean energy just about forever (as in billions of years).

Smart power is just how the greenies and the liberals will ration power. And you will pay for it. You’ll be taxed extra if you use more than what they determine is the correct amount. Only fools will think otherwise.

Energy is Life.
Cheap Energy is Prosperity.

Nov 2, 2009 - 4:55 am 4. Tolbert:

And this action will lead to further manipulation of the energy markets, but on a larger scale.

Hello Enron II.

Nov 2, 2009 - 5:34 am 5. HoosierHawk:

Another writer pushing something that they have no understanding of. Why can’t authors self limit themselves to things that they know about? Probably because they don’t know what they don’t know.

Now why would a “smart” grid be better than a “stupid” grid? If ever there was an obvious case of marketing duping the uninformed this is it. Smart is better than stupid, it has to be better! Smart is good, we all know that.

Ask a few smart questions, like, is there going to be more generating capacity? No, it’s not about that. Are there going to be higher capacity transmission routes installed? Ah, no that’s not going to occur. Will it prevent terrorists from causing problems? Well actually it may enable them to do so, as it will create many more avenues for causing trouble, and allow them do remotely, what they now need to do in person, like shutting down a transformer.

What exactly is a smart grid all about? They call it smart because they will be transmitting encoded information over the power lines. Bear in mind that power lines don’t have shielding to prevent RF leakage for the high frequency signals required, so there will be all kinds of interference to radio transmissions, particularly in the shortwave bands.

What are the advantages? It will enable real time monitoring of electrical usage by individuals, and allow the control of that usage. It doesn’t create any more of what we need nor does it create the pathways needed to bring it to us. It allows them to control us.

We already have smart grid technology where I live. The power company doesn’t have to send anyone out to read our meter every month, they know exactly what we are using all the time. Our electric company doesn’t have any generating capacity of their own, they only buy it, and distribute it. When the price of electricity rises during times of peak usage, they send a signal that shuts off our water heater, it saves them money. Oh don’t worry you’ll get used to a cold shower, may not like it, but you will get used to it, we have. I have a 7 year old, modern house, but don’t have a choice about the temp of my shower. Progress is wonderful.

The next step is to make more appliances smart – air conditioning for example. You don’t really need it and hey the power company can make more money if you let them control it. It’s not that they don’t have power, they would just rather not sell it right now, it saves them money.

The final step is to start billing based on WHEN you use the power. That way when the factory miles away starts pulling more juice, and generating stations have to start using less efficient “peaking” capacity, they can bill you for it. That way you will learn to shut down your house, so that they can supply the factory using cheaper power.

Personally, I would rather see cheaper generating stations, like nuclear, being built. Instead they want to invest in ways to control and monitor an individuals usage, rather than creating more of what we need. I don’t call that smart, it’s a step backwards.

Nov 2, 2009 - 6:20 am 6. Chris:

As wife to a former Electrical Engineer in the power industry, now a Production Manager, this article is sheer idiocy. A national power grid does nothing to keep power on. All it does is redistribute power. Which is what most companies are already doing. Only now, the companies are paid for excess production. Once you nationalize the grid, who is in charge of where the power is going? The government employee. How do they determine who pays whom for the load? All it does is allow the government the ability to deny energy to a certain sector or area. And likewise, feed that load to some other area. Sound like wealth redistribution to anyone else?

But most of all, if the grid fails, everyone will be affected. Not just a state or city who rely on a ill run energy company. Poorly run power plants will benefit while those that are well run will be punished. Do we see a pattern here?

Nov 2, 2009 - 6:50 am 7. Wayne:

The idea that an increasingly complex, more interconnected grid that will be called on to adjust to the vagaries of unreliable energy sources such as wind and solar (thus adding to the complexity, number of connections, and overall fragility) could possibly be more secure is fatuous. As we have seen in the personal computer world, hacking, viruses, etc. have increased with the increased complexity of the operating systems and as connections to the internet have become more pervasive.

As the use of the unreliable sources increases, the total generating power of the country will need to incorporate a greater number of ‘peaking’ plants to handle the fluctuations. Shifting large loads will create a greater need for connectivity and will reduce the time available to make changes. Since large electrical flows, like most large things, do not take well to sudden changes, fluctuations are likely to propagate more easily through the system, which will now itself be large due to the need for subgrid to subgrid connections. ‘Interesting’ backlash events should be expected.

Nov 2, 2009 - 7:25 am 8. david foster:

The vulerability of the grid to hacker attacks is not due to the presence of “ancient technology”, rather, it is due to the incorporation of *modern* technology (Internet connections for dispatching, etc) without proper safeguards.

More interconnections of regional grids will allow problems to propagate on a wider basis, so that what might have been a local or regional outage could instead be a national outage.

Nov 2, 2009 - 7:50 am 9. Ran:

Given the patent lies and pure BS in every other area of this Government’s present efforts, I have ZERO trust in your claims, JS. NO TRUST WHATSOEVER. Apart from the Marines, is there a Government program that has not failed to produce the exact opposite of it’s stated intent?

When a “smart grid” includes putting Government weenies in charge of my furnace and appliances, I am less concerned about attacks from foreign hackers than from elitist hacks. I don’t want IBM or GE snuggling-up to my fusebox. Yeah… Tell us with a straight face you want some SIEU doofus in charge of your thermostat.

I’m not buying the “smart grid” argument. Got that?

By the way… The footer above claims you are a “former RINO.” Another item I’m not buying, pal.

Nov 2, 2009 - 8:00 am 10. Kevin_S:

You want to solve the electrical problem?? Build more power generators. Yeah. Really. I’m serious. It is guaranteed to work. No theory needed. 100% guarantee. IF you want really reliable electricity build any of the following three types of plants; nuke, coal, or nat gas. They are the only ones capable of generating massive amounts of electricity. Not to mention the number of construction jobs and when it’s done the permanent jobs to keep the plants up and running.

Nov 2, 2009 - 8:41 am 11. Tex Expatriate:

I think this is the last time I will waste time reading Jazz Shaw. He demonstrates what is so wrong with so many people who live in the northeast. If the government would get out of the energy business completely, private enterprise could take over and eliminate most of the problems easterners experience with energy. Look to Texas for an example of a government staying out of the people’s business.

Nov 2, 2009 - 8:41 am 12. Fritz:

Yikes!

And somewhere I heard Global Warming can be abated through Green Technology.

Nov 2, 2009 - 8:44 am 13. blotto:

He’s a “former RINO” because now he is a heretical, Northeastern, flaming progressive.

Thanks to all the posters for the information.

Nov 2, 2009 - 8:44 am 14. david foster:

A serious energy-efficiency effort would take a hard look at the opporunities in cogeneration/district heating, in which waste heat from powerplants is used for business & residential heating (and even air conditioning). It is very possible that investing X dollars in district heating/cooling systems would have a higher ROI than investing the same amount in grid interconnection programs.

Nov 2, 2009 - 8:51 am 15. Julian Gammon:

Not mentioned is that Carol Browner (Ex EPA, Ex Socialist Party member) and current Czar of whatever has openly stated how great it would be, once we have “smart meters” in place to regulate and shut off power to individual households who “use too much” or maybe vote the wrong way.
I am surprised that the author does not see this for the Trojan Horse that it is.

Nov 2, 2009 - 9:45 am 16. Brian:

Now they are going to start billing you in real time. Meaning added $$$. It’s going to cost you more in power bills… But don’t worry Obama is only going to raise taxes on those making above $250K… for the rest of you he is going to find backdoor method to get a hold of your money… Power companies are going to charge more, then the government is going to charge the power companies more to do business… its a backdoor tax. Just the same as we are all doing with Medicare now… The government pays hopitals 75%.. we cover the other 25% through increased insurance premiums… backdoor taxation. It’s the new government standard.

Nov 2, 2009 - 9:49 am 17. Calvin Ball:

Oh, Jesus Christ. Do you know a proton from a crouton, dood?

Nov 2, 2009 - 10:06 am 18. Joseph Somsel:

Does this site have editors?

This article is wrong, wrong, wrong.

The focus of “smart grids” is “demand control”. That’s a euphenism for rationing of electricity. Government places obsticles to building more generation causing shortages. Government then steps in to reduce shortages by invasive control of individual’s consumption.

An early application of “smart meters” has been Fresno, California. Numerous people have seen their bills triple or more.

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1680838.html

Soon, the control will extend to your home applicances including your home thermostat.

As to resistance to hackers – don’t believe it – it will get worse!!! Certainly existing remote controls are a bit too vulnerable but that is being fixed without increasing digital controls that will extend into your home.

The Smart Grid is rentseeking by certain companies (GE in particular) and governmental power expansion at all levels.

It must be stopped.

Nov 2, 2009 - 10:14 am 19. Real Deal:

“Smart” grids are only one more way in which you lose your freedom to choose. Even now Constellation Energy is advertising thermostats that they can control. F*** THAT!

I work in the IT field and I can tell you the more “smart” the grid is the more vulnerable it is. It basically becomes a network with hundreds of millions of access points. What we need are more power generation sources, upgraded transmission lines to handle more “juice” with less loss, a way to store more excess power, and security at vulnerable points.

Nov 2, 2009 - 10:48 am 20. Anonymous:

“With this in mind, it was somewhat encouraging to hear that President Obama had slated a portion of our frequently wasted stimulus dollars to improving the nation’s power grid. Under this plan, roughly 100 utility entities across the country would receive funding to modernize the grid, forestall rolling failures across service areas, install smart meters at both residential and commercial locations, and upgrade security systems to prevent hostile attacks from hackers.”

SURE IT WILL! Yea right! If you want to see more taxpayer dollars magically disappear and have the likes of GE demand more taxpayer funding then support the “smart grid” by all means.
Even if the president was reading from the Bible it wouldn’t change the fact that he is a liar. The devil quotes scripture all the time but it doesn’t change the fact that he is a liar.
In this case the president is touting all the savings we will gain from using less energy with a “smart grid” while also proposing a huge CAP and TRADE tax increase that will more then double energy costs in very short order and make it virtually impossible for the United States to generate enough power to meet it’s needs and force many utilities out of business.
Normally reliable energy will become a myth once the so called “smart grid” appears.Instead of being hacker proof because there is no computer access to your thermostat now you will have somebody’s IT department (or God forbid a government IT dept.) constantly screwing everything up like the computer Nazis they are. Just imagine a new software update where all the previous settings and information are completely wiped out and everyone has to wait until the database is restored or rebuilt. Of course it will be no ones fault and it will be status quo.
If these programs are not killed, virtually every home or business will have to have a second source of power and the ability to disable the government controls. Should be an interesting sort of black market $$ business.
All of our technical improvements should be in the hands of free marketers who have the risk incentive to get it right in short order or lose market share and their investment dollars.
KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF OUR HOMES AND WALLETS!
VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT!

Nov 2, 2009 - 10:56 am 21. Bob Owens:

I’m in IT as a profession, and one thing I can tell you is that the Nixon-era technology may not be particularly efficient or sexy, but it is far more “hacker-proof” than the smart systems.

Also, a a former work at a Central Hudson contractor, I rode perhaps a thousand miles of transmission lines in southern NY and CT on ATVs doing inspections. From that experience, I think that the possibility of conducting a dumb attack using rudimentary explosives to topple key transmission towers or to take out isolated stations and substations is just as serious a threat and perhaps more likely to take down a significant portion of the grid than a hacker’s attack.

Instead of building a more integrated and technology dependent system, I suspect we would be far better served with a decentralized infrastructure.

DARPA once had a similar idea, applying the concept to computer systems. Anybody remember what that network was called, and whether it worked out?

Nov 2, 2009 - 12:33 pm 22. Chris Bolts Sr.:

So…let’s move our wasted stimulus dollars to our wasted “smart grid” technology. What part of “get the federal government out of the private markets” don’t people understand? I don’t want anything from the government, let alon a “smart grid” to control energy usage. I can do that quite nicely: if it gets too hot I’ll jack up the A/C and vice versa. Don’t need some computerized bureaucrat to do it for me.

Nov 2, 2009 - 1:06 pm 23. Ran / Si Vis Pacem:

Bob Owens… Yes, exactly. [I'm not sure what the decentralized DARPA model was called.] I do know that “ubiquitous computing” is, in many many applications, vastly more efficient than centralized processing. Imagine Ford, for example, running every worker’s desk station and every production machine from a centralized CPU bank. SCR3W THAT. GE – freaking General Electric – can’t adequately control it’s own offices from a centralized machine – and yet that stupidity is exactly the “demand control” model Jazzy admires.

Free markets are another example of distributed intelligence proven to be vastly superior to centralized command systems.

Nov 2, 2009 - 2:49 pm 24. M. Report:

What the Engineers with experience said,
above, summarized:
Efficiency is the enemy of Reliability
Better is the enemy of Good Enough

If the State were doing what it wants you
to think it is doing, it would _still_
be a bad idea; Power generation, and all
the other utilities and infrastructure
vital to human survival, need to be
DE-centralized, made modular, and,
on the software side at least, made
triple-redundant, using different code
for each of the three controllers in
a 2-out-of-3-vote safety circuit,
as in done in aircraft fly-by-wire
systems; Conservative old tech.

What I tell you three times is true:
The pyramid of power is the mark of
the Totalitarian State.

Nov 2, 2009 - 3:17 pm 25. Fantom:

Centralized control of power.. why does that scene in “Total Recall” pop up in my head. You know the one, where The One(power hungry lib) cuts of power to the fans which provide oxygen to those small free marketeers(conservatives).

Yeah.. obama in control of who gets electrical power is what I want… not.

Nov 2, 2009 - 4:34 pm 26. Right Wing Extremist:

“Allegheny Power Co.’s plan to begin charging customers $5.86 a month in February to pay for sophisticated electric meter technology has been nixed by the state…

Allegheny Power… wanted some of its 700,000 Western Pennsylvania customers to start using smart meters quickly because the company’s state-mandated energy conservation program relies on use of such devices.

–snip–

According to the company, all customers beginning in February would pay a monthly surcharge of $5.86, which would increase to $14.34 a month by June 2011, $15.57 a month by June 2012 and $15.77 each month by June 2013.
–

Nobody making under $250,000 will pay a dime more in taxes… well…not directly to the gov’t…we’ll make somebody else charge you and collect money.

Nov 2, 2009 - 7:13 pm 27. Ken Royall:

I wouldn’t trust the government to wire up a toaster much less modernize the grid. Obama’s objective is to hand out contracts to his buddies and set up the grid for wind and solar, two other taxpayer subsidized boondoggles that are total failures. This moron Shaw doesn’t seem to understand that EVERYTHING Obama does is to further his agenda and to cement Democrat power. Therefore EVERY SINGLE INITIATIVE he embarks upon should be met with ENORMOUS SKEPTICISM.

Nov 2, 2009 - 7:34 pm 28. Eric:

This article fits nicely with a recent report from the Congressional Research Service that says we have MORE OIL, NATURAL GAS, and COAL RESERVES than any other single nation on earth.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34233

http://epw.senate.gov/public\/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=f7bd7b77-ba50-48c2-a635-220d7cf8c519

“The United States has largest energy reserves on Earth, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service.

As shown in the charts below (follow link above), the U.S. has 1,321 billion barrels of oil (or barrels of oil equivalent for other sources of energy) when combining its recoverable natural gas, oil and coal reserves.

While Russia is a close second with 1,248 billion barrels, other energy producing nations are far behind. No. 3 is Saudi Arabia (543 billion barrels), followed by China (494 billion barrels), Iran (426 billion barrels) and Canada (221 billion barrels.)

“Our overwhelming coal, natural gas, and oil resources represent tens of trillions of dollars in wealth and millions of American jobs,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R.-Ok.), who, along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R.-Alaska), released the report last week. “Whether through decree or purposeful inaction, government policies that unnecessarily restrict or prevent our ability to responsibly produce these domestic resources are threatening, and could eventually undermine, our nation’s economic and national security. We should pursue an all-of-the-above strategy that advances new energy technologies but also prioritizes developing the resources we have today.”

The report also noted that the United States has 28% of all the world’s coal reserves, with Russia again coming in second with 19%.

In addition, the report stated that the United States has tapped into only 13% or 21 billion barrels of its oil reserves, with the other 87% still untouched.”

Nov 2, 2009 - 8:10 pm 29. Jeff Perren:

“This is one area where even fiscal conservatives should support loosening up the federal purse strings and pushing forward with these improvements.”

No. What should be loosened up are regulations – local, state, and Federal – to allow for private companies to deliver electricity to those who wish to purchase it. Today, we have a patchwork quilt that all have the same basic purpose: to keep electricity generation, distribution, and delivery monopolized by quasi-government agencies in every locale.

Free the electricity producers and you’ll have better quality, lower rates – just as is the case in every other business. Heaven help us if the idea of having food grown and delivered is every subject to the same Fascist-lite principle of combining government and business. Having no lights at night will then be the least of our problems.

Nov 3, 2009 - 10:39 am 30. Cap'n Rusty:

Bob Owens:
Another de-centralized organization that has the potential to be quite successful was set out in a few pages by a group of plain, honest men in Philadelphia in 1787.

Nov 3, 2009 - 2:48 pm 31. Joseph Somsel:

Oh no! This Shaw person has yet another article up on PJM.

Let’s show some editorial standards before this place loses its reputation and its readers.

Nov 4, 2009 - 8:17 am