Tag Archives: energy

Defining the social grid

February 4, 2010 – 1:31 pm

behaviour_graph

I’m not sure if there has been any talk about the Social Grid but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it. When I say Social Grid, I mean managing and sharing energy usage online. Bleeding edge developers and early adopters of technology are not averse to sharing their energy usage online. But if the internet is going to be a reliable and secure tool for managing energy usage by the mass market, there are various attributes required.

The social grid is a reality now, with the Government about to start trialling a social networking type system for a small sample of communities spread across the UK. Each community will compete and compare energy usage.

So with this in mind, here is my attempt at defining the social grid. This is very much a work in progress, which no doubt will be added over time and discussed and criticised etc. I look forward to peoples thoughts on these initial points. Let’s try and shape the future of energy monitoring.

In the Social Grid

1.  The user is boss and can restrict or share energy usage data as they wish
2.  Data is anonymous for public consumption on the internet and in comparison tables
3.  Monitoring devices and hardware must be low power
4.  Integration with online services for mashup analysis of data like the AMEE API
5.  A user can share real, anonymous, randomised or event driven data to users or groups of users with online services
6.  Cross platform and cross device

By chris dalby | Posted in Green | Also tagged , , | Comments (8)

Home Camp Looking Back Looking Forward

February 15, 2009 – 4:13 pm

Last weekend we silently opened up registration for the next Home Camp in April 2009.  We are yet to confirm the exact date and venue.  However, head over to the wiki and sign-up and suggest session topics.

http://homecamp.pbwiki.com/

This week, we released some video footage over on the Home Camp wiki, which was originally shot for the fridaymorningreport.tv 24 hour Marathon in aid of Medicines sans Frontiers.  Sadly, this was postponed, as Craig has seriously done his back in.  Get well soon Craig, look forward to seeing you back to full speed soon.

We’re still planning on contributing to the FMR marathon when it does go ahead, in the mean time, indulge in some of the footage that we shot.

The first Home Camp TV video is a brief chat with Martin Dix from CurrentCost about how the company’s technology is moving forward.

The second video is an interview with Andy Piper, looking back at the first Home Camp and looking forward to the next one in April. General rambling about software and hardware hacks.

We cover a lot of subjects in this conversation, including home automation, Current Cost, Google Power Meter, Pachube, Nokia Home Control Center, arduino, Home Easy to name a few.


Home Camp from chris dalby on Vimeo.

By chris dalby | Posted in Green, Tech Watch, Video | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

David Cameron’s Low Carbon Economy

January 20, 2009 – 1:35 am
Low Carbon Economy

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: smart carbon)

David Cameron launched the Conservatives ‘Green Paper’ on the Low Carbon Economy (LCE) on Sunday 18th January 2008.  You can also watch the video of the LCE launch on the Conservatives Mogulus Channel.  I would have embedded the video, but it insisted on autoplaying and there did not seem to be a permalink for the video.

The main points of the LCE are as follows:

An electricity internet – we will add computing intelligence to electricity networks by introducing a smart grid and the use of smart meters in homes. This will allow demand and supply to be intelligently managed, and pave the way for large-scale use of renewable energy sources.
A system of feed-in tariffs – we will create a decentralised energy revolution by paying people who produce energy from renewable resources
A new national recharging network – this will enable Britain to lead the world in replacing traditional cars with electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles
New low carbon energy sources – we will enable biogas, methane produced from farm and food wastes, to replace up to 50% of our residential gas heating
Low carbon buildings, transport and commerce – including a new entitlement for every home to be fitted with up to £6,500 of energy efficient improvement

Having watched the webcast, David Cameron massively emphasizes the policy of smart meters. As I pointed out in a post last week, smart meters have been written into English law and energy suppliers will be obliged to provide smart meters to customers.  So I see no benefit in the Conservatives emphasizing smart meters as though they are the great inventors of a new found technology. It is a matter of course that they will be installed, whether the Conservatives come into power or not.

The Green Paper also includes a vision for encouraging people to generate their own energy and sell back to the national grid.

We will create a decentralised energy revolution by paying people who produce energy from renewable resources

The system of feed in tariffs is an interesting idea and the future of energy generation.  Although as far as I am aware, the rates for feed in tariffs are already scheduled to be increased to encourage micro energy generation, so there is nothing new here also.

The claims of tapping into farm and food methane waste are over ambitious at this stage.

we will enable biogas, methane produced from farm and food wastes, to replace up to 50% of our residential gas heating.

I am not sure of the timeframe quoted to meet the 50% claims, but clearly this will not be a fast move.  Even if the Conservatives win the next general election, I find it hard to believe that these sorts of figures would be ahieved with 3 terms of Government.

While I welcome the general thinking behind the LCE ‘Green Paper’ policies of the Conservative Party, I have to say that I agree with Nick Clegg on the substance of this new ‘Green Paper’:

This announcement is like David Cameron riding his bike, but what is important is what is in the car behind him.

By chris dalby | Posted in Green, Video | Also tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Smart Meters Just Became Smarter

January 14, 2009 – 9:06 pm

After the oil is gone

Image Licensed under Creative Commons from Identity Chris is’ Photostream

A new utility company in the UK called First:Utility announced the launch of a new smart metering service for customers today.  The service means an end to estimated energy bills, no overpaying, and more importantly will prevent customers from getting unwelcome surprises when bills arrive.

Enjoy complete control of your energy usage enabling you to cut costs and reduce your carbon footprint

The smart meters are connected to First:Utility via mobile phone, and send one reading for gas every day, and 48 readings for the electricity each day (once every half an hour).  The data is used by First:Utility to produce accurate bills without the need of meter readers.  The customer has access to a realtime chart developed in flex (by the looks of it I think), along with a current cost meter for the customer to track their energy use both online and by looking at the current cost meter in the home.  Although with only one gas reading per day, it is unclear whether the gas metering will allow the customer to make any meaningful analysis of their gas usage at different times throughout the day.

You can see a video from BBC2’s Working Lunch programme that shows the new system from First:Utility.  This is not on iPlayer, so I think it should be fine for non UK viewers.

If you do not live in the UK, you probably do not realise that energy bills are a huge bone of contention. The energy companies were privatised starting with British Gas in 1986 and the electricity companies were reorganised and privatised in 1989, thereby creating commercial entities focussed on making profits for shareholders.  Which leads us to the situation the country finds itself in today with the big six energy companies having a strangle hold on the domestic energy market, rocketing energy prices and 4.4 million households in energy poverty.

According to oilbarrel.com, Brent Crude Oil is currently trading at around $45 a barrel, more than $100 below peak pricing in July.  Gas and electricity prices are linked to oil prices and while the wholesale pricing of gas and electricity has tracked the falling oil prices, the energy companies have still not passed any savings on to customers.

The Energy Act 2008, along with the Planning Act and Climate Change Act, form the basis of legislating the delivery and management of the UKs energy supplies.  This Act allows the licenses granted to the energy companies to be altered, requiring the energy companies to install smart meters in various customer sectors, including the domestic sector.  So the energy companies have no choice.  They will need to be using this technology.

This is good news, as customers will be able to get real time data of their energy usage, but more importantly, the technology will eventually allow the consumer to sign up for deals that enable their smart meter to make choices throughout the day regarding the best tariff and supplier, switching for the cheapest option on demand.

While we are not quite there yet with the idea of dynamic supply and pricing, this does pave the way for the type of geekery being developed at Home Camp to actually make a difference by being useful to everyone.

By chris dalby | Posted in Green, Tech Watch | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)