(Published in Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight column, Feb 23, 2009)
For most of the last century, the world’s electrical grids stood as an engineering marvel of the modern age and a global symbol of progress. The cheap, abundant power they brought changed the way the world worked — filling homes, streets, businesses, towns and cities with energy.
But today’s electrical grids reflect a time when energy was cheap, their impact on the natural environment wasn’t a priority and consumers weren’t even part of the equation.
Back then, the power system could be centralized, closely managed and supplied by a relatively small number of large power plants. It was designed to distribute power in one direction only — not to manage a dynamic global network of energy supply and demand.
As a result of inefficiencies in this system, the world’s grids are now incredibly wasteful. With little or no intelligence to balance loads or monitor power flows, they lose enough electricity annually to power India, Germany and Canada combined for an entire year.
Take for example, if the U.S. grid alone were just 5% more efficient, it would be like permanently eliminating the fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars. Billions of dollars are wasted every day generating energy that never reaches a single light bulb.
Fortunately, our energy can be made smart. It can be managed like the complex global system it is.
We can now instrument everything from the meter in the home to the turbines in the plants to the network itself. In fact, the intelligent utility system actually looks a lot more like the Internet than like a traditional grid. It can be linked to thousands of power sources – including climate-friendly ones like wind and solar. All of this instrumentation generates new data, which advanced analytics can turn into insight, so that better decisions can be made in real time, i.e. decisions by individuals and businesses on how they can consume differently, decisions by utility companies on how they can better manage loads, and decisions by governments and societies on how to preserve our environment. The whole system can become more efficient, reliable, adaptive...smart.
Smart grid projects are already helping consumers save 10% on their bills and reduce peak demand by 15%. Imagine the potential savings when this is scaled to include companies, government agencies and universities.
IBM scientists and industry experts are working on smart energy solutions like these around the world. We’re working with utility companies globally to accelerate the adoption of smart grids to help make them more reliable and give customers better usage of information. We’re working on seven of the world’s 10 largest automated meter management projects. We’re even exploring how to turn millions of future electric vehicles into a distributed storage system, so excess power can be harnessed and returned
to the system.
Our electrical grids can be a symbol of progress again — if we imbue the entire system with intelligence. And the good thing is — we can.
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Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of De La Salle Professional Schools. He is Country Manager, Utilities and Communications Sector of IBM Philippines. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com, or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
For most of the last century, the world’s electrical grids stood as an engineering marvel of the modern age and a global symbol of progress. The cheap, abundant power they brought changed the way the world worked — filling homes, streets, businesses, towns and cities with energy.
But today’s electrical grids reflect a time when energy was cheap, their impact on the natural environment wasn’t a priority and consumers weren’t even part of the equation.
Back then, the power system could be centralized, closely managed and supplied by a relatively small number of large power plants. It was designed to distribute power in one direction only — not to manage a dynamic global network of energy supply and demand.
As a result of inefficiencies in this system, the world’s grids are now incredibly wasteful. With little or no intelligence to balance loads or monitor power flows, they lose enough electricity annually to power India, Germany and Canada combined for an entire year.
Take for example, if the U.S. grid alone were just 5% more efficient, it would be like permanently eliminating the fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars. Billions of dollars are wasted every day generating energy that never reaches a single light bulb.
Fortunately, our energy can be made smart. It can be managed like the complex global system it is.
We can now instrument everything from the meter in the home to the turbines in the plants to the network itself. In fact, the intelligent utility system actually looks a lot more like the Internet than like a traditional grid. It can be linked to thousands of power sources – including climate-friendly ones like wind and solar. All of this instrumentation generates new data, which advanced analytics can turn into insight, so that better decisions can be made in real time, i.e. decisions by individuals and businesses on how they can consume differently, decisions by utility companies on how they can better manage loads, and decisions by governments and societies on how to preserve our environment. The whole system can become more efficient, reliable, adaptive...smart.
Smart grid projects are already helping consumers save 10% on their bills and reduce peak demand by 15%. Imagine the potential savings when this is scaled to include companies, government agencies and universities.
IBM scientists and industry experts are working on smart energy solutions like these around the world. We’re working with utility companies globally to accelerate the adoption of smart grids to help make them more reliable and give customers better usage of information. We’re working on seven of the world’s 10 largest automated meter management projects. We’re even exploring how to turn millions of future electric vehicles into a distributed storage system, so excess power can be harnessed and returned
to the system.
Our electrical grids can be a symbol of progress again — if we imbue the entire system with intelligence. And the good thing is — we can.
-------------------------------
Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of De La Salle Professional Schools. He is Country Manager, Utilities and Communications Sector of IBM Philippines. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com, or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
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