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A "smart energy" revolution could help ensure that the UK does not suffer blackouts, according to National Grid's new UK chief.
Nicola Shaw, its executive director, said technological advances will reduce the need to build new conventional power stations in the UK.
An "internet of energy" will allow fridges, washers and dishwashers to help balance energy demand.
Some commentators say the UK needs more gas-fired power to prevent blackouts.
Ms Shaw agreed that more investment in gas-fired power was needed, but argued that between 30% and 50% of fluctuations on the electricity grid could be smoothed by households and businesses adjusting their demand at peak times.
The gas company executive says more gas-fired power is necessary to prevent blackouts in the future. Also, smart appliances could help balance energy demand across a smart grid.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Thursday September 22 2016, @01:55AM
Is this a fucking joke?
An "internet of energy" will allow fridges, washers and dishwashers to help balance energy demand.
Some commentators say the UK needs more gas-fired power to prevent blackouts.
Ms Shaw agreed that more investment in gas-fired power was needed, but argued that between 30% and 50% of fluctuations on the electricity grid could be smoothed by households and businesses adjusting their demand at peak times.
"We are at a moment of real change in the energy industry. From an historic perspective we created energy in big generating organisations that sent power to houses and their businesses. Now we are producing energy in those places - mostly with solar power," she told BBC News.
London-listed National Grid runs electricity and gas networks in the UK and the northeastern United States.
Reads like a sales pitch, and I think its about turning everything in your house to an IoT item. Yay energy efficiency?
Communities should become self-sufficient, its the energy storage that is the problem. Price fluctuations for people that have their own power production? Umm what?
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @05:33AM
Get your head out of the sand. If your washing machine and dish washer run when the grid has excess power, there's less need for storage. That idea certainly makes sense, and IoT / smart grid can make it happen. As an incentive, the customer can pay lower rates at off peak times.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday September 22 2016, @07:16AM
And the IoT can also spy on you, introduce all sorts of security flaws, and introduce non-free proprietary software in places where it previously did not exist. No thanks. I'll be skipping out on the IoT until the software industry can learn to respect the freedoms of users and not be actively malicious.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 22 2016, @06:21PM
Once upon a time, we had electro-mechanical appliances with big ugly switches and knobs. They could easily be connected to a timer to start at a given time.
It's cheaper to have a fancy digital controller, which also allows you to have 25 different wash cycles you'll never ever ever figure out the point of.
But not a clock, oh no sir, not a clock. You may get a delayed start, but god forbid you'd want a timed start.
For that, you need the fancy model which needs to talk to our servers to work at all. How we would use that log that you did 4 kg of laundry at 11PM, nobody knows, but our stock value depends on it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @08:43AM
As an incentive, the customer can pay lower rates at off peak times.
Has it actually got cheaper like that for those of you in the relevant countries/areas?
Or is it more of "The Power Company can now charge customers higher rates at peak times".
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Thursday September 22 2016, @03:41PM
I think I can say the same to you. The article is trying to sell people on the IoT with a tone that is mildly threatening, "get smart devices or get charged higher rates.". They talk about communities balancing out load demands with solar but immediately say we also need more gas burning stations. There are too many ways in which this fails and I would rather have a dynamic power generation system that can handle the fluctuations and gets rid of the rate system all together.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday September 22 2016, @07:38AM
Storage.
If you want to level out grid demand we are going to have to get serious about storage, and probably storage close to the point of consumption. But all that money for new gas plants into some form of storage, ANY form of storage.
Storage is ready right away. Gas plants are 30 minutes to get up to temperature, even if you keep them at idle temp. Hydro is 30 seconds away from ready, and battery storage is 30 milliseconds away.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.