{"id":248964,"date":"2010-01-29T16:45:26","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T21:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2010-01-29T16:45:26","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T21:45:26","slug":"electricity-to-power-%e2%80%99smart-grid%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/248964","title":{"rendered":"Electricity to power \u2019smart grid\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

BBC News:<\/a> Global electricity networks could become smart grids that can help us monitor and control our energy usage, if plans from net firm Cisco take off.<\/p>\n

The giant US firm, whose technology helps underpin the net, is building a two-way link into electricity grids.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Smart grids would allow devices to communicate with utility firms to give an accurate view of energy use that could cut CO2 emissions by 211m tonnes.<\/p>\n

Cisco believes the market could be worth up to $20bn a year.<\/p>\n

The basic premise is to link different parts of the electrical grid – from a single home to the largest of power stations – using a customised network based on internet protocol (IP).<\/p>\n

Cisco says the proposal would be a “once in a generation capital investment”.<\/p>\n

With the rising cost of electrical power and concerns about how that power is generated – especially when it comes to fossil fuels – a number of other firms are also making a bid to modernise the electrical networks.<\/p>\n

IBM launched a range of embedded software applications, although these communicate through the regular internet, rather than via the mains; General Electric and a number of new start-up firms are also making bids to capture a slice of the market.<\/p>\n

Cisco says its system is different, because it would send the IP data down the power lines themselves, rather than using the internet.<\/p>\n

Shocking news<\/p>\n

Security is also a factor. In April the Wall Street Journal reported that hackers had penetrated the “US electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system”.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC, Neil Harris – Cisco Europe’s head of green IT – said it would be harder for hackers to penetrate the new network.<\/p>\n

“It won’t make it invulnerable, but as the network is separate from the net it adds a new layer of resilience,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We expect to see a rise in micro-generation, not just in Europe, but round the world, and the smart grid would be able to handle the bi-directional flow of data and electricity.”<\/p>\n

Read more>><\/a><\/p>\n

Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC News: Global electricity networks could become smart grids that can help us monitor and control our energy usage, if plans from net firm Cisco take off. The giant US firm, whose technology helps underpin the net, is building a two-way link into electricity grids. Smart grids would allow devices to communicate with utility firms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}