Earl Mardle (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} rlmrdl) wrote,@ 2003-03-05 09:49:00 |
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Power Companies Go End To End
For years the electricity utilities have been threatening to become the network of choice for all users, especially domestic ones. And it makes sense, electricity is one service/ good that requires every customer to be connected via a large diameter conductive physical link. Now here is a network that carries content, content that can kill you if you aren't careful. If it can carry 240 volts, it can carry any kind of information we care to think of. We've been promised cheap, fast broadband access via the wall socket for nearly a decade now and it hasn't happened, yet. But the near ubiquity of the network continues to be attractive and the idea that you can get the information and the power to run the device from the same plug, a bit like a souped up USB Really, is seductive.
Now, BP in California are going another step and actually marketing the distributed, networked power station. For years the utilities fought the idea that people should not only be allowed to generate their own power, but if they produced more than they needed, they should be able, in essence, to sell it back to the utility by having it drive the charge meter backwards.
BP have finally woken up to the idea that this is a better idea for a sustainable future than the old client/ server model of power generation and distribution.
Their "Home Solutions" deal not only provides a 50% discount on the cost of the installation, but includes the repurchase deal for those using less than they produce. Now, given that highly interconnected networks such as those in western post industrial societies are both highly resistant to failure, and degrade really badly when they do, the next thing is to distribute the control and management to local hubs so that a failure in one part of the network will be less likely to cascade through the system.
Keeping watch. Edwin land said that creativity was the sudden cessation of stupidity, maybe some is happening inside BP.
For years the electricity utilities have been threatening to become the network of choice for all users, especially domestic ones. And it makes sense, electricity is one service/ good that requires every customer to be connected via a large diameter conductive physical link. Now here is a network that carries content, content that can kill you if you aren't careful. If it can carry 240 volts, it can carry any kind of information we care to think of. We've been promised cheap, fast broadband access via the wall socket for nearly a decade now and it hasn't happened, yet. But the near ubiquity of the network continues to be attractive and the idea that you can get the information and the power to run the device from the same plug, a bit like a souped up USB Really, is seductive.
Now, BP in California are going another step and actually marketing the distributed, networked power station. For years the utilities fought the idea that people should not only be allowed to generate their own power, but if they produced more than they needed, they should be able, in essence, to sell it back to the utility by having it drive the charge meter backwards.
BP have finally woken up to the idea that this is a better idea for a sustainable future than the old client/ server model of power generation and distribution.
Their "Home Solutions" deal not only provides a 50% discount on the cost of the installation, but includes the repurchase deal for those using less than they produce. Now, given that highly interconnected networks such as those in western post industrial societies are both highly resistant to failure, and degrade really badly when they do, the next thing is to distribute the control and management to local hubs so that a failure in one part of the network will be less likely to cascade through the system.
Keeping watch. Edwin land said that creativity was the sudden cessation of stupidity, maybe some is happening inside BP.
