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Erich gets sore feet on the 2nd Day at GridWeek 2008 By Erich Gunther Sep 24, 2008 - 7:08:37 AM
National Press Club Reception – End of day. OK, so I do not know how to blog – I am an engineer after all! So I was told after my first GridWeek blog post tonight. Apparently, there is a “style” to blogging that I was woefully distant from in my first post yesterday. So here goes my next attempt with a renewed effort to be an effective blogger!
Rewind – Morning, GridWeek Keynote. Jeremy Rifkin gave the opening keynote this morning. An effective and dynamic speaker but he appears to me to be a little bit left of Karl Marx in his thinking. He seems to subscribe to a - the sky is falling, too much prosperity in too few hands, we are killing the planet with every breath we take philosophy. Even so, and no matter the wacky (IMHO) path he took to get there, he came to some conclusions on our energy future that I must admit are quite valid.
Jeremy frequently copied Ben Stein’s “Anyone, Anyone,” refrain from the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” while rhetorically querying the audience on statements he posited. No matter his politics, I found many of those statements and especially most elements of his four pillars of the Third Industrial Revolution quite interesting and mostly valid albeit arrived at using flawed logic (IMHO again). Those pillars – Renewable Energy, Buildings as positive Power Plants, Hydrogen Storage, and Smart Grids and Plug-in Vehicles – are all great ideas. I just thought that his - if we wait we are going to be too late and all die – approach to promoting these concepts was too far out. Also, the hydrogen storage specific approach he was promoting is a bit problematic – but storage in general – and he stated that all storage is a good thing – is certainly critical in a modern grid. Overall, he seems to have the same problem that many futurists, prognosticators and promoters of nice, neat solutions to our woes have – they lack an understanding of systems engineering and complexity management and the reality of getting from point A to point B in a manner that is prudent, cost effective and stable. OK – off my soapbox on this one – his presentation mostly was fairly decent.
After Jeremy’s presentation I had a hard time concentrating on Bob Gilligan’s – he was too “normal” for me (I agreed with his positions) – so I left the room to do some networking.
Noon Break – Vendor Display Area. After a brief discussion with a few potential new clients, I headed off to the metro to make the trip to Shady Grove at the end of the Red Line to be met by Srini Krishnamurthy from Eka Systems. My feet are killing me – I hate wearing a suit and dress shoes.
After what seems like an eternity on the metro (only about 45 minutes - I took the orange line to Metro Center and then the red line to Shady Grove) Srini picked me up for a 10 minute van trip to the offices of Eka Systems in Germantown Maryland – all I could think was – this better be worth it!
Eka Systems HQ. I toured their facility and sat down for a meeting with their President and CEO, the CTO, and others on their team. My goal was to learn enough about their product offerings to properly advise my clients and to perhaps review them in my Smart Grid News column. I learned that they have a very bright CTO, a well thought out product architecture and development roadmap, a clear vision with how to manage the cyber security aspects of their system, and a solid philosophy consistent with the principles I promote in the smart grid checklist. Stay tuned for a future review of their product line at SmartGridNews.com.
Back at the Regan Building: After another hour-long trip back to DC, I arrived in time to start listening to the afternoon session but was quickly interrupted by a phone call – gotta bag the conference again. I don’t feel so bad though after running into a client from First Energy who missed all but the opening plenary due to phone calls – he was on his second battery!
National Press Club – The Reception. I ran into that guy doing video interviews (the same guy narrating those cool videos seen in the sessions) and he noted that a segment he recorded with me yesterday would be featured in a new video to be shown Wednesday – oh boy – what did I say this time?!!!
I can’t believe how impolite this crowd is – Terry Mohn is trying to speak and even with the microphone and after much glass dinging with a sharp metal object he is being drowned out by chatty smart gridders – how rude! I swear someone must have busted that wine glass banging on it to get everyone to shut up and listen to the opening remarks.
OK, the opening remarks are getting a bit winded – we are here to mingle and network after all – a DOE colleague concurs. Even so, it is still rude to drown out Bob Galvin during his remarks – but the event sponsors should not have tried to co-opt so much time for their commercial message – I thank them for the excellent booze though.
Erich trying to get a good meal in DC. On the streets of DC: Off to dinner with friends, co-workers and potential clients. First to the Old Ebbit Grill – a favorite of mine. Crap, an hour-long wait for 7 people. Some folks outside recommended The Oceanaire at 12th and F. We got in with no wait. The menu was fantastic and our waiter was amazing – too many options! We had a perfect meal with perfect service – but at a price - $600!! Oh well, there goes the overhead – time to up the rates.
Back at the Four Points Sheraton: wrote this blog entry and prepared to spend the next few hours until around 3 AM doing the work I didn’t do during the day while attending the conference and doing all the other stuff I noted above – life goes on ……
Article by Terry Mohn ... Why Smart Thermostats are part of the Smart Grid
Erich had a great meal at the Oceanaire
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