Interesting twist on smart meters

[Blue Duck]

Was talking to a friend last night who is a programmer for the petro-chemical industry, turns out he has a new contract programming smart meters and is part of a pilot scheme on an estate in my old stomping ground.

Here's the deal.

The estate has several comunal batter banks similar to those installed on tesla cars and they charge up off peak or from PV and provide cheap energy and when they run out they can borrow some off their neighbours via a p2p network and when there is too much not being used they can back feed into the grid. This technology also works with EV's and is a way of reducing customer bills and strain on our ever aging infrastructure.

There is a dark side however...

The smart meters he is programming are capable of denying appliances electricity in times of peak demand. He is creating algorithms that recognise patterns and loads so they can identify what type of appliance is in use and shut it off should needs be.

This kind of stuff is a little way off but I guess it's the way of the future.

We only spoke briefly so I hope to find out more soon as I found it quite interesting, so much so I thought I would share it with you lot.

 

[Andy™]

would those certain loads be plant lighting? if so, i dont think the 'customer' will be bothered because the meter is probably in a skip anyway...

 

[ProDave]

TIP:  Do not buy a "smart" fridge, in fact be wary of buying a "smart" anything.

Nobody can remotely turn on or off any of my dumb appliances, short of killing all the power to my house.

An interesting discussion about EV's on another forum.  If the average EV can do 200 miles per charge, then 1000 charge cycles will see the vehicle do 200K miles, by which time the rest of the vehicle is knackered. So it will have done it's entire life on the original battery pack.  BUT if you start using that battery pack as part of a "smart grid" that will increase the charge / discharge cycles many fold and the battery pack will no longer last the life of the vehicle (or the life of the vehicle will be shortened if a replacement pack is not economic)

I don't think the consumer should pick up the bill because "they" cannot look after the energy supply.

 

[Badger]

Was talking to a friend last night who is a programmer for the petro-chemical industry, turns out he has a new contract programming smart meters and is part of a pilot scheme on an estate in my old stomping ground.

Here's the deal.

The estate has several comunal batter banks similar to those installed on tesla cars and they charge up off peak or from PV and provide cheap energy and when they run out they can borrow some off their neighbours via a p2p network and when there is too much not being used they can back feed into the grid. This technology also works with EV's and is a way of reducing customer bills and strain on our ever aging infrastructure.

There is a dark side however...

The smart meters he is programming are capable of denying appliances electricity in times of peak demand. He is creating algorithms that recognise patterns and loads so they can identify what type of appliance is in use and shut it off should needs be.

This kind of stuff is a little way off but I guess it's the way of the future.

We only spoke briefly so I hope to find out more soon as I found it quite interesting, so much so I thought I would share it with you lot.

Does that mean people's security in the future to protect properties like burglar alarms CCTV fire systems etc could end up looking power also the computers which have data on them this is crazy the burglaries will be on the way up if alarms and CCTV are shut down 

 

[Evans Electric]

Reading this reminds of the disclosure some years ago , outlining a scheme within the Labour party to have trackers built into every new vehicle so it's whereabouts could be monitored at any time . 

Eric Blair would have been pleased in the innovation !!   Looking into the future 1984