White House to announce IT-powered smart grid on Monday
Summary: The White House is holding an event on Monday to unveil new initiatives to implement a smart electric grid in the US. IT is expected to play a prominent role in the plans.
On Monday, the Obama administration is preparing announce the next steps that the US will take to build its 21st century electric grid, and IT is expected to play a big part in the plans.
The White House is hosting a 90-minute media event called "Building the 21st Century Electric Grid" and is releasing a new report on what it will take for lawmakers and the private sector to come together to solve this aspect of the energy challenge.
The press invite from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy stated, "The Administration will announce a number of new public- and private-sector initiatives designed to accelerate the modernization of the nation's electric infrastructure, bolster electric-grid innovation, and advance a clean energy economy, in part by taking greater advantage of digital and communications or 'smart grid' technologies."
The event will feature a number of heavy hitters from the President's cabinet, including:
- Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy
- Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer
- John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
- Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture
- David Hayes, Deputy Secretary of Interior
- Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality
- Phil Weiser, National Economic Council Senior Advisor
Jesse Berst, chief analyst of SmartGridNews.com, reported, "We hear that a few leading utilities and at least one technology vendor will be featured as well. Our sources say the announcements will include a new nonprofit to encourage rapid implementation of consumer tools for choice and control."
Here's more from the official White House statement:
"Along with the announcement of new public and private initiatives aimed at building a smarter, expanded grid and empowering consumers, the Cabinet-level National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) will release a new report: 'A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid.' This policy framework charts a collaborative path forward for applying digital information or 'smart grid' technologies to the nation's electricity infrastructure to facilitate the integration of renewable sources of power into the grid; help accommodate the growing number of electric vehicles; help avoid blackouts and restore power quicker when outages occur; and reduce the need for new power plants."
In 2008, Obama made a series of campaign promises aimed at attacking the country's energy challenge. Some of the more popular aspects of his plan were talk about "green jobs" and the "smart grid." We'll see if Monday's announcement can start moving the ball down the field on both of those initiatives.
The event wil be streamed live at whitehouse.gov/live at 10:00AM Eastern on Monday and the NSTC report and other materials will be available at whitehouse.gov/ostp at that time.
President Obama receives a briefing on the BP oil spoil on July 21, 2010 at the White House. Credit: White House photostream
This article was originally published on TechRepublic.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
Any Gov't IT initiative has the potential of going horribly wrong.
Can you give ONE example
Capital
What is needed is a plan of targeting availability of much-need capital to those who ask for help and qualify--and I don't mean the SBA.
When car manufacturers tanked -- the Gov't tossed money their way.
When the Banks tanked because of the effects of lending practices which were deregulated and left with no close oversight, the Gov't tossed money their way.
When Wall Street tanked because of deceit, the Gov't tossed money their way.
Making capital available to rebuild our country is vital but that need not mean the Feds attach stipulations to how dollars are spent. Let that be.
Re Capital
You just want ONE example?
The government didn't build the railroads, they simply gave cash to the people who did it. That was the extent of their involvement.
Railroads? You are joking, right?
Puh-lease
It wasn't until the 1850's that government money even went to the railroads at all. Until then, it was private investors. Eeven the transcontinental railroad was built by the Union Pacific.
Read a real history book, not a tripod site.
re: railroads
The government didn't plan, regulate or otherwise interfere in the building up of the railroad infrastructure, but they sure "planned" a lot of it out of existence thereafter.
I'll give you an example of a successful national-scale movement that arose without any government involvement: Major League Baseball. :)
Dietrich: When it comes to banks and Wall Street and automobile companies,
People often overlook the real reason for why businesses or the economy fail, but, oftentimes, the problems can be traced to the hidden costs and external factors which were intrusive and damaging, even if some of those interventions might have been "well intentioned". When it comes to government involvement in any part of industry, we generally end up with more problems than if those industries were allowed to go it alone.
wizard57m: Sorry about repeating myself, but, what I said to Dietrich,
<b>When it comes to banks and Wall Street and automobile companies, a lot of the problems in those sectors, were originally caused by government involvement and intervention in those areas to begin with. Without government intervention into those sectors, chances are that the problems would never have been created and no rescue plans would have been needed.
People often overlook the real reason for why businesses or the economy fail, but, oftentimes, the problems can be traced to the hidden costs and external factors which were intrusive and damaging, even if some of those interventions might have been "well intentioned". When it comes to government involvement in any part of industry, we generally end up with more problems than if those industries were allowed to go it alone.</b>
RE: White House to announce IT-powered smart grid on Monday
i alway hear people talk about government should stay out. but let me ask you this sir.Shouldn't the government get involved with a project that might well be, the biggest
change to the national energy sector?
I'm not Dietrich, but, my answer to that is a very simple "HELL NO!".
Big government is the source for most of the economy's and country's problems, so let's not make things a lot worse by giving them more regulatory and control powers.
RE: White House to announce IT-powered smart grid on Monday
WITH THE EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IN SMART DEVICES AND ITS APPLICATIONS, AS WELL AS THE GROWTH IN INTERNET TRAFFIC AND TRANSACTIONS, WE NEED TO BUILD INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES FOR: BROADBAND SERVICES, HEALTHCARE IT, SMART TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, AND SMART GRIDS.
PLEASE SEE:
www.21stcenturycommunications.blogspot.com
www.21stcenturyinfrastructure.blgospot.com
www.nationwideeehrinteroperability.blogspot.com
www.gkquoquoi.blogspot.com
GADEMA KORBOI QUOQUOI
PRESIDENT & CEO
COMPULINE INTERNATIONAL, INC.
RE: White House to announce IT-powered smart grid on Monday
A nice fat target for the POS hackers.
Security? We don't need no stinky security.
RE: White House to announce IT-powered smart grid on Monday
Stupidest Idea Ever
Out of all these problems, I fail to see how an IT-powered smart grid does anything useful for the nation.
If anything, a smart-grid will allow easier flow of electricity to different corners of the country. While this is superficially good, the net effect will be that consumer prices will go up.
Why, because in markets where generating capacity is currently at a surplus and cannot be easily moved, smart-grid will allow it to get exported out of state. People in wealthy states with electricity deficits will bid-up price and drive rates up.
That doesn't even include paying for all the technology upgrades to make a smart grid possible... Does anyone really believe that taxpayers won't be on the hook for that somehow?
And finally, it sounds cool, but I suspect rate-payers will foot the bill for this crap and end up with Chinese-built wind turbines and solar panels feeding power into it. We will end up with a grid that will facilitate increasing the trade deficit even more.
Agree and disagree...
RE: White House to announce IT-powered smart grid on Monday
Currently quasi-governmental sudo-private companies have regional monopolies. They raise prices on a yearly basis with little to no visible return to the consumer. Where else are the customers going to go? Off the grid?
While it may be true that people in wealthy states may "up the demand and drive prices up" the opposite will also be true - that when consumers have choices they can find the cheapest option - which has the affect of bringing pricing down with more services attached.
It's possible you will see prices even out across the US - which means if you live in a low cost utility area now - you may be negatively affected. But if you live in a high-cost utility area, then you will suddenly see a decrease in utility rates.
-CF
Get out!