Calling the Smart Grid the “Scam of the Century,” energy consultant and self-described wind energy scientist pioneer Ken Bosley lays out a critique of the Smart Grid on the Gerson Lehrman Group site. Writing that the Smart Grid is a waste of money, doesn’t work, and isn’t desirable even if it does, Bosley makes several arguments: Going digital degrades reliability and security; that the Smart Grid would only have value if cheap ways of storing energy existed; TOU pricing has been around for decades and doesn’t require a Smart Grid; remote-reading meters fail more frequently than standard glass meters; Smart Grid technology lets the electric company “know who, what, when, how much and why you buy or do anything”; and more.
Quick Take:This essay is disjoined and rambling, but it’s a good reminder that the Smart Grid has its detractors. Now that Smart Grid has gone mainstream, so will the opposition.
If you extrapolate what the author seems to be advocating, then I guess we should all be independently micro-generating. Taking this argument further, we can consider getting rid of other networks as well which have built up to serve a modern society. This is all very well until you consider the two go hand-in-hand. A modern society and all it entails developed incrementally out of requirement for improved networks and associated logistics. After each incremental change, the change becomes effectively essential. This can quite simply be described as progress. The Smart Grid is such an example of an incremental change - there is a need for it and once it has been established society will increment to absorb the change and thus require it. Suggesting it is not needed is clearly retrograde.
Robert Cragie - 07/22/2009 - 02:13
Smart Grid Scam?
I was excited to see the title of this article as I too have questioned the validity of some of the politically motivated "smart grid" initiatives.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bosley's effort is a rambling train wreck. Unsubstantiated claims, non-sequitors, faulty logic, and grammatic abominations add up to a less than impressive case.
It's like reading my crazy uncle Pete's rants on reality shows.
This is not an endorsement of Smart Grid of course, but rather an indictment of the author's product.
Philip W. Thomas - 07/22/2009 - 08:08
Windpower problems
One could write the same type of critique of wind energy. Many of us who lived near wind farms which sprung up in the 1980s can describe in perfect detail how they hyped themselves, then slowly degenerated into a bunch of broken down towers. The operators had simply failed to mention the extraordinary costs and difficulty of maintaining all those machines year after year.
Oops, sorry windpower people, now we're airing YOUR dirty laundry.
Tom Lemon - 07/22/2009 - 08:27
Strong Service and Smart Business
This comment is not related to energy consultant and self-described wind energy scientist pioneer Ken Bosley. It is about the need to change the obsolete Investor Owned Utilities Architecture Framework, because of an architecting mistake done in EPAct 92. That mistake is making the Smart Grid a highly risky proposition.
In the following paragraphs all HTML is removed. To see the complete post, go to www dot energyblogs dot com/ewpc and select the article Strong & Smart Grid.
Smart Grid or Strong Grid? Comment on Ken Maize is a timely post by by Robert Michaels, on July 8, 2009, in MasterResource: A free-market energy blog. This is a comment I submitted under that article, which at this moment is awaiting moderation:
[quote begins] I love the concept of the Strong Grid, as it fits nicely with the Electricity Without Price Controls (EWPC) Architecture Framework (EWPC-AF) that has emerged to replace the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) Architecture Framework (IOUs-AF).
This is how it fits. The Smart Grid is based on the policy: economy first, system performance second. The strong Grid is based on system performance first, economy second.
A Strong Grid will result in a simple, not simplistic, power industry, which can be divided into two highly cohesive systems that are lightly coupled and that mutually reinforce each other. The systems are a primary regulated power service transportation system and a secondary open market commercialization business system. That is my key discovery.
Please go to the EWPC Blog (my website) to learn about the Greek Tragedy that will cost the American ratepayers and/or taxpayers billions of dollars. [quote ends]
The smarter grid that is being developed is not a strong cost effective grid. As Jim Collins and Jerry Porras' lesson given in their book "Built to Last," a key idea is the Genious of AND, Instead of choosing between a Smart Grid or a Strong Grid, the EWPC-AF embraces both as a Strong & Smart Grid,
A good example of the comparison of the characteristics of the IOUs-AF and the EWPC-AF can be found in the last sets of comments between James Carson and myself under the must read article How Secretary Chu can Deliver a Win-Win, Big Deal Outcome at the Global Sustainability Game:
[space requirements limit, but the essencial elements are laid out already]
José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, Ph.D. - 07/22/2009 - 14:50
What's the smart grid?
I've been in this business for many years, watching the various buzz phrases come and go, and I still don't know what this one means, despite many seminars attended and articles read. It means different things to different people. It clearly means "big brother" to the author. Much of what the author rails against has been around for years however, such as the ability to remotely disconnect service, or monitor electricity usage by time-of-day. Police here is California routinely bust grow houses based on tips from the utility regarding abnormal usage. Maybe we should just call it "The Smarter Grid," meaning one that uses digital technology to enable best use of the resources available, whether they be distributed generation, load-shifting, or storage. We have a generation and distribution system that has not kept up with advances in communications and control technology. We can do better.
p.s. Despite the author's contention, there actually is energy storage in the Mid-Atlantic region. PSEG's Yards Creek Station in NJ, which I've flown over many times en route to Newark Airport is 400 MW and there is another 1500 MW (Muddy Run and Seneca) in Pennsylvania. All three are in PJM, along with the author's host utility.
Greg Tinfow - 07/22/2009 - 16:08
Why DOE should Establish a System Architecture?
This is another post I wrote today in response to the article "Developing Progress," by Ken Silverstein, in his Informal Insider Blog, which starts as follows:
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met recently with Indian Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh. The United States is trying to persuade India to cut its global warming emissions, which triggered a sharp reply..."
Just as my other comment, above, all HTML is removed.
Hi Ken,
Good post as usual. Is the U.S. planning to export its energy policy to developing countries?
Can you tell me why the political energy policy process in the U.S. is leading to a DOE mandated standards architecture, which has a huge flaw that originated in EPAct 92? The flaw is based on the policy economic first, system performance second.
As you can see from the example on the post "The Deadly Sin of State Regulators on the Smart Grid," the risk involved with the Smart Grid is completely unacceptable. The post "Strong & Smart Grid," describes very well what is needed by the U.S. and developing countries.
Given the above, Why the U.S. is not letting go the Investor Owned Utilities Architecture Framework to follow the advice in the article "How Secretary Chu can Deliver a Win-Win, Big Deal Outcome at the Global Sustainability Game."?
José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, Ph.D. - 07/22/2009 - 17:38
Smart Grid a Scam?
I sure think so. Much like the Internet, our electric grid is a common carrier network that moves electrons from where they're produced to where they're consumed. The grid needs better sensors at the transmission level that provide operators with real-time actual power flows instead of state estimates, but the stated goals depend more on grid smart consumers than on any intelligence in the grid itself. We'll see the real advent of what some call the smart grid if and when consumers show their willingness to buy energy-saving devices with their own money. Until that time, Smart Grid is just a giant boondoggle.
Jack Ellis - 07/22/2009 - 20:20
Smart Grid-a Scam?????
Dear Mr. Bosley,
Thank you for reminding us all through your article that you are "an expert in renewable energy since the 1973". Frankly speaking, that's the only part in your article that I felt worth remembering. You have kept on raving and ranting about the ineffectiveness of smart grid without sufficient evidence to support you. You have kept on cribbing about the cheap energy storage systems without which (according to you) the smart grid would become ineffective. I really don't think so as smart grid encompasses much more than that which unfortunately might not have come across you. It entails automation of substations, demand response not only at industrial end but also at residential end, utilization of power usage data to analyze trends for further research, reducing transmission and distribution loss through use of HVDC cables and much more. If your holiness can take some time off smart grid bashing and consulted the document provided by US DOE then I might not have taken up the pain to write this comment. Thankfully, your publicity gimmick have attracted a lot of eyballs and you have successfully promoted yourself as an maniac who is satisfied living in the ages of Thomas alva edison. Better consider taking refuge at Tristan Da Kunha, you won;t have any complaint with the grid system there (They don't have any).
Regards,
A lunatic who is willing to see change for a better future.
Sankar Gupta - 07/22/2009 - 22:03
Jack Ellis Stated Goal is the Way to Go
Jack Ellis has been around for quite some time in the discussions of the emerging transformation of the power industry. I agree that "... the stated goals depend more on grid smart consumers than on any intelligence in the grid itself."
A strong service and smart business is what is needed. To enable that, there is a need for the EWPC-AF to set up an architecture competition of the smart business based on the Silicon Valley Model and not set up by DOE mandate on NIST and EPRI.
José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, Ph.D. - 07/23/2009 - 09:29
Smart Grid
The Smart Grid is a very costly solution to many problems that don't exist. It's purpose is to allow two way power flow into the grid from places that are the best sources of wind and solar power. Since Pickens and others have discovered that transferring power that is not available on a predictable basis from places that couldn't be further from the users, we are expected to spend billions on this.The DOE estimates that it would save $2-$5B/yr out of $300B for the annual electric power we now consume. They have already committed $4.5B to companies to experiment. Wake up people!
Richard Henry - 07/28/2009 - 13:18
Dumb Ass "Smart Grids" To No Where
Americans must educate themselves because a SMART GRID PROJECT is coming to your neighborhood.
Here in Northern California a grid promoter called TANC proposed a 1,000 foot wide, 600 mile long project through half a dozen counties. This project would have traveled through 6,000 properties and end in the far North Eastern areas of Lassen County.
Why would someone build a grid to no where? Stimulus Fund grab and long term contracts with utility companies projects underwritten by rate-payers and backroom deals in the millions without public oversight.
Read about TANC here and check out the citizens group that stopped TANC at http://stoptanc.org
Green Earl
http://yeswecansolveit.blogspot.com
Earl Allen Boek - 08/05/2009 - 03:52
Lccal Micro Projects, Are The Answer
Think Globally, but Act Locally...
Another 30 year pioneer (wack job) in conservation and solar generation
Green Earl,Founder
American Energy Conservation Group
Redding, CA
Creating Negawatts.....Since 1981
Earl Allen Boek - 08/05/2009 - 03:56
Smart Grid
Is there anyone out there who can give an educated opinion as to the expected cost of replacing our current power grid with a HVDC grid ? Would it have to be a Federal Govt effort?
For years we've been expecting smart meter hardware prices to decline sharply. A California company we told you about earlier this year is promising a smart meter for as little as $20. Do you think it will happen? Will we see dramatic price drops in smart meters this year - or anytime soon? That's our Tuesday Topic this week. We hope you'll join the discussion.
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