WEBVTT - What is a smart grid? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.800 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.079 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette, 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:21.760 and I am the tech editor here at how stuff 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.520 works dot Com. Sitting across from me as usual as 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:29.040 senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, all right, I'm I 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.840 feel amped up. Yeah, I feel I'm getting a real 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.280 charge on today's Let's not do this, We've done it 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.559 so many other times before. Let's just start off with 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:44.240 a little a listener mail. This listener mail comes from Eric, 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.720 who says, hey, guys, I really enjoyed the podcast and 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.040 was wondering if you had ever thought about talking about 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.880 smart meters. Right now in Dallas, it is all over 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.080 the news about how some people are getting ripped off 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.360 by these meters. How do they differ from the old 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.640 fashioned analog power meter, or, as I lovingly think of them, 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.000 the spinny power meters. They seem easier to read and 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:04.959 they talk back to the power company with no need 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.720 for a meter reader. With modern day technology, how can 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.039 this be a bad thing? I would love to hear 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.280 about this either on the blog or a podcast in 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.280 the near future. Thanks Eric, Well, Eric, we thought we 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.880 talked a bit about smart meters and the smart grid. Yes, indeed, 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.119 because as it turns out, right now, our power grid 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:27.560 in the United States is pretty stupid. Well, you know, 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.839 it is inanimate and all that. But what we're talking 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.319 about when we talk about the smart grid is, um, 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.080 a very centralized system of electricity. Now, of course, most 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:42.520 of the country is wired into a very um how 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:49.160 should I put this over burdened is putting it delicately? Yeah, Yeah, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.080 the power grid right now, the way power power generation 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.360 and transmission works is you've got power generators throughout the 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:02.360 United States, UM, about nine two undered electric generating units, 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.400 and those are producing more than a million megawatts and 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.080 it's and they have more than three hundred thousand miles 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:12.079 of transmission lines. Yes, Jonathan is quoting some statistics from 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.280 the United States Department of Energy. Yes, so apparently you 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.400 read the same the same uh guide book. Yes, there's 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:21.600 a really uh I really like that guide book. Actually 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.880 it's very easy to understand, UM, and what it's crammed 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:30.000 full of some real really eye opening statistics. UM. Little 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:34.519 things like since UH peak demand growth has exceeded transmission 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.840 growth by nearly per year. So what that means is 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.120 that the demand for energy is growing at a much 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.600 faster rate than the rate that we're adding capacity in 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.320 the in the in the transmission lines. Now, that does 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.080 not mean that demand exceeds capacity yet, it just means 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.800 that the growth is completely out of whack. Yeah, and 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.480 the thing is with the current grid the way it is, 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.440 and the reason why you should be concerned and about 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:05.160 this is um everything is wired into the few UH 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:09.600 centralized power generating facilities. So the problem is once something 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.800 goes down, it takes down a lot of the grid 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:13.799 with it. We've we've seen that happen several times in 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.440 the past few years. It's in different parts because what 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.600 you've got like a when you think about you've got 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.400 a power generator that is sending power to essentially a 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.600 distribution center, which then sends it out to all the consumers. 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.200 And by consumers we mean people who are you know, 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.760 your house, your job, all the places you go to. 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.040 Those are all the consumers for the power companies. So yeah, 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.520 if you have a power generator go down, then that 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:44.160 affects everyone further down that chain. Now, the real problem 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:45.840 with the power grid as it stands now is it's 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.120 not terribly flexible and it's not intelligent in the sense 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.080 that it can't detect a problem on its own if 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.040 something if something goes wrong, people have to notice it 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.520 and report it in order for the power companies to react. Now, granted, 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.400 if it's a power generator that goes down, you can 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.040 pretty much bet the power company knows about it, because 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.640 they're gonna be people at that facility screaming and panicking 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.760 or at least making very frantic phone calls to other 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.320 power generators to try and do a load balance so 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.800 that consumers are not without power for too long while 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.440 they try and get the generator backup online. But we're 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.240 pretty reliant on electricity at this point. I don't think 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.320 that kind of thing goes uh unnoticed for very long. Right. 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.599 But if let's say that there is a major power 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.040 outage in part of your town due to a tree 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.800 falling across some power lines, the power company does not 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.159 know that you are no longer receiving power at that point. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:47.520 They can't tell because there's no feedback system there. With 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.240 the basic power grid structure, a smart grid would have 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.760 a feedback system where every single consumer would have a 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.280 smart meter um that not only was easier to read 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.800 and could tell you how much you are consuming at 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.920 any particular time, but would send this information directly back 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.440 to the power company. Because right now, the power companies 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.719 have to for for the most of the country anyway, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.520 the power companies have to rely on the old method 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.479 of sending a meter reader out to your house to 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:20.000 actually physically walk up to the meter, read what it says, 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.440 write it down, and then go back to the power company. Yeah, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.440 spinny powers that Eric was referring to write. Yeah, they're 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.000 they're reading what it says on there and then making 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.080 note of it. And that's what your bill is based 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:34.159 off of these these uh, regular meter reads. But with 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.320 a smart meter, it's constantly feeding the information back to 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:42.120 the company. UM. Now, I did look into the controversy 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.520 they talked about the Dallas controversy. Yes, this is what 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.880 the company called Encore, right, And in this case, what's 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.800 happening is that they consumers in Dallas are claiming that 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.719 their their electricity bills are higher than they should be, 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.000 and that they suspect that these new smart meters that 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.000 have just recently been installed in their homes are in fact, 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:07.279 uh giving incorrect readings. They're not they're not calibrated properly, 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.320 and that if they had been using the old meters, 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.760 their bill would have been lower because either the old 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.000 meters were more accurate or something along those lines. Now, 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.680 the power company's response is that they want to run 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.480 tests to make sure that the meters are in fact, 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.240 uh not reading as they should be. But the other 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.159 factor in this equation is that Dallas had a particularly 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.479 cold winter and as as a result, a lot of 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.120 people were using more electricity in order to heat their homes. 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.640 So it may be that the bills were hired not 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.960 because the meter was incorrect, but because they legitimately used 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.760 more electricity. Well, obviously a lot of people are concerned 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.080 about it because from what I've read, only generally what 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:56.280 happens is only about four tests to check out uh 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:02.359 what are considered poorly functioning meters happen in uh And 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:04.920 you know, a given month, you know, I'll have to uncle, 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:06.640 I'll have to send somebody out to check on a 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.479 meter based on a person's complaint, and uh. But in 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:14.560 January and February of the months immediately preceding the one 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.280 in which we are recording this podcast. Uh, it's spiked 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.320 to four thousand per month, so it is you know, 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.320 now a thousand or what no, I mean a thousand percent. 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:27.120 And it got to the point where, uh, the the 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:31.880 city government actually stated that, uh, that they would no 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.480 longer they would waive the twenty five dollar fee that 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.360 it usually takes to have to send someone out and 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.200 run a test on the meter because so many people 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:44.200 had complained. They want to seem responsive, so uh so 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:46.960 that that fee has been waved from this point on, 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.720 and anyone who had someone come out and test the 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.240 meter recently is actually do a refund if they did 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.600 pay that twenty five dollar fee. Well, normally they get 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.920 one free reading from Encore, but the every public a 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:04.200 couple of years though every hold on UM every four years, 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.280 they get one free test. But the Dallas Public Utility 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.000 Commission told Encore it had to waive the fee or 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.320 refund the fee UM based on whether or not people 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.240 were having continued problems because say, uh, say you had 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.800 just had a complaint about your power meter, they sent 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.160 somebody out there, that's your free visit. But say the 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.640 new meter doesn't seem to be functioning any better, and 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:29.640 you have somebody else come out and test it. Well, 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.040 they're saying that, you know, based on the what's going 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.319 on right now, they want away if the twenty five 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.319 fee because they want to make sure that the smart 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.120 meters are working correctly, and they're responding to complaints. So 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.080 it's it's because people are complaining over and over again 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.120 that the smart meters are not doing what they're supposed 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.160 to do right now. Whether the smart meters are actually malfunctioning, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.920 that's a totally different matter. It may just be like 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.120 we said that people are using more electricity than they 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.520 realize and that it's just that the power company has 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:58.640 an accurate measure on it. We just don't know the 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.760 whole story yet. But I have a theory. What's that 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.000 to um that there's just a theory. It's not based 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.160 on anything other than just what came to mind. UM. 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.880 I wonder if human error factors into it. Also, people 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.840 who come out to read the meter and they read it, uh, 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.600 you know, one way, and then suddenly the smart meter 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.839 is reading at at an accurate level and they're going, 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.480 wait a minute, or maybe they report differently too, I 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.640 wondered that it could even be that that power companies 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.520 only send meter readers out on a pretty rare basis, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.760 and that they estimate how much a monthly fee is 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.280 based upon your previous usage, which means and which they 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.760 can adjust whenever they do a future reading, like they'll 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.240 they may do one reading every three months instead of 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.800 every month, and then so in the months in between readings, 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.200 they'll make an estimate and then uh, if the estimate 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.960 it was too high, then when the metiator reads the 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.520 the meter and it's it's lower than they had projected, 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.760 they can adjust the bill lowers to to factor that in, 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.840 or vice versa if the people use more energy than 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.120 was projected. UM. The smart meters, though, I wanted to 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.800 talk about why they are and generally why they're kind 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.200 of a cool idea. Well, of course, it's easy to 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.440 say it's nice that they don't have to send somebody 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.240 out to your house every time they need to do 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.800 a check up and see how much electricity it used. UM. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.880 But one of the things that that I think is 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:28.920 really cool about that too is that it gives the 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.240 customers some insight into exactly how much electricity they're using, 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.800 which is not the case with the Spinney power meters, right. Yeah, UM, 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.680 most of us have no idea how much electricity we 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.480 are using at any given time. Uh doesn't mean we 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.240 we happen to know that if we're running a lot 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:46.200 of stuff, like if the air conditioning is going on 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.000 full blast and we've got the dishwasher going and the 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.240 dryer out and you know, the laundry room is going 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.640 at the same time, we know we're consuming a lot 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.360 of power, but but we don't have any way of 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.320 quantifying that. It just we just know, but we don't 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.880 know like details. So it was really kind of meaningless. Yeah. Actually, UM, 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:08.360 A couple of companies that we talked about quite a 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.920 lot have created initiatives to help people take advantage of that, 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.320 like Microsoft with its Home I just you know, saw 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.000 the name again. When I saw the name, it triggered 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:24.439 the fact that it's upon h O h M. I 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.800 knew it had to have been something like that. Uh. 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.600 And the and Google power Meter, which actually you can 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.760 sign up for the service and uh keep track of 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.839 what's going on with your house. Course it also um 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.440 probably will enable them to sell ads to you, I 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.760 don't know, and normal operation and you might be surprised 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.880 to find out how much electricity you're consuming. But as 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.920 we get more sophisticated with our technology, the technology also 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.480 tends to to consume more electricity. Now, things like energy 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:59.439 Star appliances and devices, those consume less electricity than their counterparts, 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.560 but they they're still pretty power hungry. So if you've 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.559 got things like a you know, a lot of like television's, computers, 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:11.360 video game consoles, air conditioner appliances, close clothes dryer, there 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:15.199 are no energy Star certified closed drying except for except 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.960 for the clothes, yes, exactly, hanging out in the backyard. 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:21.240 I'm so glad you jumped in there because my brain 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.280 bind out of me the thing where you think stuff 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.800 and the pins and I don't know because I don't 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.520 dry my clothes that way. I just wear them wet. 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.840 Uh they no, the the that's not that's not entirely 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.680 true now the uh so the other aspect of the 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.280 smart meters of course. So yeah, you know how much 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.400 electricity you are are using at any given time. Now, 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.360 why is that important? Well, it's because electricity does not 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:51.400 always cost the same amount throughout the day, that's right, 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.480 And it depends on on the time of year two. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:59.280 Because pete usage times fluctuate based on a lot of 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:03.120 different factors is and and the reason that peak usage 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.920 rates go up from what I understand is because UH 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.920 sometimes when you have your local grid and the peak 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:14.679 usage goes over what the peak UHAT or peak generation 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.559 ability is of the local station, then they're going to 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.560 have to import energy from someone else, and that costs more. 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:22.640 So they're going to have to charge you more to 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.600 cover that cost. So you want to keep your peak 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.280 usage down. And so having the ability to learn from 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:34.280 your smart meter and and what your household energy usages 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.280 will give you an idea of what the best time 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.160 to you know, wash and dry closes for example. Right, 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.200 you might notice that when you look at the meter, 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.240 like a good meter would have a readoubt that you 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.680 could easily see as a consumer and that you could 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:51.600 easily interpret. So not only would you know how much 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:53.760 energy you were consuming, but you would know the price 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.160 of that energy at that time. And power companies usually 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:58.959 release the price of what the power is going to 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.600 be for the falling day, so you can see the 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.120 day before what the what it's going to fall out. 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.679 And then as far as the price, UH variation goes 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.400 and you can play in your day accordingly. And so 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:14.320 if you see that at nine pm the price hits 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.760 nice low, then you know, well that's when I'm gonna 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.280 run the washing machine or the dryer or whatever. Um. 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.040 And then if it's really really high at two pm, 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.440 you might think, well, I'm gonna try and avoid running 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.360 as much as i can. Uh. Now, the peak times 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.320 throughout the year tend to be things like the deep 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.440 winter and the height of summer, because that's usually when 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.080 we're either running the heat at full blast or the 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.760 air conditioner at full blast um. And those are very 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.880 power hungry applications. So with again, with the smart meter, 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.160 you can keep an eye on how much you're using 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.480 and when is the best time to use it. Um. 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.800 There's one other element of smart meters that is very 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.240 important and smart grid as well, which is that it 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.120 reports back as we said to the power company, Well, 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.480 it doesn't just report back the at you know, how 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:04.480 much energy you're using. If that connection is somehow damaged, 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.040 like like our our example of a tree falling on 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.520 some power lines, the power company will see that the 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.160 services interrupted. They don't have to wait for a phone call. Uh. 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.440 They'll see that the connection no longer works and they 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.120 can either try and route power around that problem so 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.720 that the consumers are only affected for a brief period, 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.240 or if that's not possible, they can just immediately send 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.880 out an engineer to go and fix the break and 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.240 the power line UH without having to wait first for 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.280 a phone call alert them to the issue. Which is 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.040 one of the most important parts about the smart red UH. 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:46.040 It's much information travels much faster because it's it's more 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.360 of a aware system in a way, instead of it 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.360 just being you know, you're sending the power out and 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.240 that's and you have to wait to hear anything. There's 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.760 a constant two way communication going on. Another advantage of 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.600 having a smart meter is if you are generating power 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.000 on your own, say if you have some solar panels 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.760 attached to your home, or if you've attached your Jack 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:11.560 restal terriers to a power generating treadmill. I don't even 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:16.240 want to know, I can power three neighborhoods. Well, I 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:21.080 imagine so with Jack Russells. But anyhow, Yes, if you 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.080 are generating power in some fashion and adding back to 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.160 the grid, then the smart meter will be able to 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:32.400 convey that information back as well, So you will, and 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.040 in most circumstances, as far as I know, the energy 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:39.040 company will pay you. Yeah. If you are a generate 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.880 more power than you use, you can essentially sell that 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:44.240 money back to the grid, so the energy back to 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.880 the grid. So yes, thank you. No, no, you wouldn't 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.320 sell the money. That'd be fun. I'll give you five 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.880 bucks for that ten dollar bill. Uh, you got a deal. Um. 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:59.520 Clearly this shows why I'm not a millionaire. UM. But 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.280 you can also you and depending on the on the 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:04.800 kind of meter you're running, it also may be able 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.600 to measure uh, natural gas or water usage as well. 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.760 And that's uh, you know that's sort of smart grid 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.680 useful because um, in some cases, since the smart grid 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.840 is decentralized rather than centralized like the current grid. UM, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.240 then you know there might be something in your neighborhood 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.439 like a a small hydroelectric plant or you know, you know, 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.919 wind energy, or a hybrid vehicle that could actually act 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.919 as a tiny generator. I'm not joking either. You can 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:42.199 sell extra energy back. UM. This this leads me to 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.560 one other or two actually two other points, one of 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.879 which is when you're talking about decentralization, that's an important 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.640 aspect of security as well. With a centralized power system, 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.840 it also means that besides the fact that you have uh, 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.520 you know, kind of a weak power system, it means 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.399 that you also have a very tempting target. Yes, it 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.320 means that a terrorist, for example, might target a power 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.360 generator be knowing that that's going to affect a very 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.520 wide area. And of course losing your power means that 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.200 you also lose the ability to communicate in large part, 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.119 and that can make things even worse. You know, it 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.200 just causes more panic, which, as we all know terrorism, 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:26.399 that's kind of the point. Um. So decentralizing your power 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:31.200 generation means that you have you create, you create the 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:34.200 opportunity to well create the opportunity is a bad way 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.080 of putting it. You eliminate targets because now even if 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.280 you were to somehow take out one target, because you've decentralized, 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.640 the rest of the system can try and pick up 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:48.000 the slack until it can be fixed. So it makes 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.880 it makes those kind of attacks less effective. We are 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.520 not anywhere close to having a smart grid right now now, 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:56.760 and if you think about it, it's a really daunting 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.560 task to put into place because um on only does 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.840 it require rolling out a massive amount of infrastructure upgrades, 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.000 but you have to do it while the power is 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.200 still on. Yes, exactly, you have to pop don't want 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.520 their power to go out right. Yeah. Unlike let's say, 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.840 if you want to upgrade a normal piece of technology, 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.000 you could take it offline and work on it, fix it, 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.680 test it. If it works well, then you can try 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.040 and run it through a trial period and if that's going, 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.560 then you're back up and running. You can't do that 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:29.840 with the power grid because people still need power. You're 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.320 gonna have to keep the power grid running even as 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.399 you are upgrading it. Uh. It's a huge challenge and 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.800 um and and it's way more than just the smart meters. 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.240 Smart meters are kind of like that might be the 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.879 the gateway into the whole smart grid system, but that's 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.280 just giving a kind of a feedback loop between the 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.280 power grid and the consumer. There's gonna be a lot 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.040 more than needs to come into play before we can 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.240 really call it a smart grid. One of the one 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.840 of the UH projects that's involved with the Department of 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:02.280 an G and the whole smart grid initiative is the 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:08.280 visualizing Energy resources dynamically on Earth or very day system, 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.359 and that's at oak Ridge National Laboratory. Yes, I decided 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.560 to go with that that pronunciation. I'm sure they have 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:23.520 aluminium in the laboratory, but I'm sanium in the laboratory. Well, 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:27.520 the very day system is at least the Faraday system 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.040 is is it relies on things like since it's or 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.160 it will rely on things like sensors across the power grid. UM, 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.760 it'll take into account whether information, it will model the 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.320 grid based upon past demand. UM. It will kind of 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.879 be like a big picture, real time glimpse at what's 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.920 going on with the entire power grid at any given time. 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:52.919 And that's very useful for things like load balancing. Like 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:56.040 we mentioned, there might be one region that is under 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.800 a particular UM strain needing a lot of power. Well, 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:01.600 with the system, you would be able to see it 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:06.000 uh in advance and be able to make adjustments quickly 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.959 without being an emergency status because right now, when that 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.960 stuff happens, you generally have a lot of people in 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:16.600 power stations working feverishly to head off any kind of 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.840 power outage or at least to to minimize it as 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.840 much as they can. UM and it's it's really due 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.600 to these people who are are working really really hard 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:30.159 to keep our power going that we don't have bigger 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.119 outages than we've seen before. It's, you know, it's not 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.720 that our our system is particularly robust. It's that we've 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.320 got some engineers who are bending over backwards to make 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:42.600 sure the lights stay on. Yep, and um, it's just 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.760 one of those things where we're it's it's takes so 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.800 much work to get it in place. It's it's going 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.560 to be a slow process to keep going. But I mean, 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.320 for just for the advanced metering infrastructure, I just wanted 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.280 to use it. Yes, which is the roll out of 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.040 the smart meters. Uh. This sound like a brand new idea, 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:03.879 but it's not. It's been They've been installing these in 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.679 some places for years. Two thousand three, two thousand four, 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.679 two thousand five. I've seen you know, people saying that 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.680 they were working on the meters here in Georgia. They've 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:15.560 been working on it for a number of years and 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.439 are just starting to uh to bring them online this 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.720