How the Internet can Green the Electrical Grid

Google Tech Talk
April 13, 2010

ABSTRACT

Presented by S. Keshav.

Several powerful forces are gathering to make fundamental and irrevocable changes to the century-old grid. The next-generation grid, often called the `smart grid,' will feature distributed energy production, vastly more storage, tens of millions of stochastic renewable-energy sources, and the use of communication technologies both to allow precise matching of supply to demand and to incentivize appropriate consumer behaviour. These changes will have the effect of reducing energy waste and reducing the carbon footprint of the grid, making it `smarter' and `greener.'

In this talk, I will demonstrate that the concepts and techniques pioneered by the Internet, the fruit of four decades of research in this area, are directly applicable to the design of a smart, green grid. This is because both the Internet and the electrical grid are designed to meet fundamental needs, for information and for energy, respectively, by connecting geographically dispersed suppliers with geographically dispersed consumers. Keeping this and other similarities (and fundamental differences, as well) in mind, I propose several specific areas where Internet concepts and technologies can contribute to the development of a smart, green grid. I hope that our work will initiate a dialogue between these two communities.

(joint work with Catherine Rosenberg, University of Waterloo)

Project site: http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/iss4e/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

S. Keshav is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Tetherless Computing at the School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Canada and the Editor of ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. Earlier in his career he was a researcher at Bell Labs and an Associate Professor at Cornell. He is the author of a widely used graduate textbook on computer networking. He has been awarded the Director's Gold Medal at IIT Delhi, the Sakrison Prize at UC Berkeley, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Best Student Paper award at ACM SIGCOMM, a Best Paper award at ACM MOBICOM, and two Test-of-Time awards from ACM SIGCOMM. He is a co-founder of three startups: Ensim Corporation, GreenBorder Technologies, and Astilbe Networks. His current interests are in the use of tetherless computing for rural development, and for gaining efficiency in energy generation, transmission, and consumption. Keshav received a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Delhi in 1986 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991, both in Computer Science.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• tech
• talk
• power
• green
• energy
• smart
• grid

[TheQuestion8]

THIS DUDE WOULD KICK ASS AT MINECRAFT

[Kingomarmuhamad]

Also, at the end he says money talks. And the debt keeps rising. This goes to show that most of everyone wants money and feels they need it to survive. Have u ever asked yourself if what u want, is what others need? Or do you want something that is just temporary? our desire should not be in profits,costs,waste or alternative energies. Me and You were given life, so all we should want is to give. An eye for an eye keeps the whole world blind.

[Dobydoves]

I got a power

[klinok19]

So far there were experiments on the large scale with photovoltaic farms in Spain, and Germany, and wind turbines farms in California. They were run for last 15 years. They all failed miserably. So far the technologies don't prove viable. The cost of energy storage and the maintenance is too high.

[klinok19]

This guy talk about general trends, but in particular electrifying your house with photo panels will be more expensive in the short, and in the long run than using the existing centralized theme. It's easy to calculate. What they conveniently "forget" in their calculations is the cost of the big new battery, that you would have to buy in 10 years, and maintenance cost of the system. The system includes panels, battery, power distribution unit and wiring.

[jalobeaulieu1]

ann dis vill rearrange your fyace...

[alexmathews070177]

SUPERLIKE

[knelledkismet]

peak oil is a lie. hydrogen from water is very viable, magnetic generators run perpetually. WHy dont pysicists realise the laws of physics have been broken several times over? oh, funding. thhe same reason the quelled cold fusion and Gen Motors electric car...criminy

[bornaround04]

WTF IS THIS NERD SHIT

[Kingomarmuhamad]

if u cant watch this 1 hour video, then u cant watch the tree grow,much less wait for the fruit that brings forth seeds. Zero is understood and overstood

[pirokosan]

I just got mind fucked and shat brix at the same time...