Cisco Enters Smart Grid Arena

Cisco Is the Next Big Player in Smart Grid Scene
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 05.18.09
Science & Technology

Cisco Systems has announced plans to be a heavy hitter in the smart grid scene, outlining its end-to-end, highly secure network infrastructure solution that aims to assist utilities and consumers with power management.

A Cisco press release from this morning states:

Cisco has already begun sharing its networking expertise with leading utility providers around the world and is building innovative network solutions for them and their customers to monitor electricity utilization, optimize energy delivery, reduce energy usage and cost, improve system security, and lessen their impact on the environment. In the months to come, Cisco plans to deliver products and additional services to support this initiative - one that is aimed squarely at addressing the growing Smart Grid communications infrastructure market projected by Cisco to reach $20 billion annually over five years.

In other words, everyone get out of the way - Cisco is doing a cannonball into the pool.

"Networking technology will serve as the platform of a smart, more secure energy grid for the 21st century. Cisco is uniquely positioned to provide a converged Smart Grid communications fabric and to assist our utility customers with the kind of business transformation that will enable the efficient, effective transmission of energy and deliver entirely new, environmentally-friendly services to consumers," says John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco.

Other big players in the scene include Silver Spring Networks, a start-up that has made it big so far. With Cisco moving in, it'll be more difficult for start-ups to get a word in edgewise. However, with the technology being so new and quickly advancing, it's an ideal situation for agile start-ups to find a niche and dig in.

GreenTechMedia writes:

Cisco already has a big footprint: big utilities and large corporations already own its equipment and a lot of consumers have wireless Internet gateways in their homes.

Just as important, Cisco has shown an uncanny knack for corporate diplomacy, with one of the best track records for buying companies and actually incorporating their technologies into their own product lines...

...Cisco also participates and often guides standards bodies and interest groups. Many expect Cisco to do the same here, particularly as it moves from managing energy in things it knows well, such as phones and networking equipment, into trying to manage power in buildings or between homes.


One thing is for sure: We need a smarter grid, and we need it fast. With an established company like Cisco making big moves like this, we have high hopes of seeing that grid put into place sooner, rather than later.

commentary

There's a problem with geothermal that no one mentions. Ie. heat only moves through the ground via conduction, not by convection or radiation. So once you pull the heat out of, say, the walls of a drilled shaft (thereby cooling them) it takes a long time for it to be replaced, since conduction is a very slow process. So there is a limit, set by conduction rates, to how much energy you can pull from a given "heat pump", no matter what you use the power for.

In reality geothermal energy is only viable on a large scale where there is geothermal activity (like Iceland, Alaska . . .). Even then, geo-heat is NOT an infinite source as people seem to think (funny how often people make that mistaken assumption). Need proof? Here are some geo-projects that extinguished popular fields of geysers around the world when they tapped their heat sources:
http://snras.blogspot.com/2008/10/geothermal-energy-development-geyser.html
At the same time, their power output has dropped steadily over the years.

Wind, 'bio-mass', ethanol and solar all have their potential pitfalls as well, if done badly. And "Clean coal" is a total misname; THERE IS NO SUCH THING! The term comes from those who stand to profit from it. Like when Eric the Red named a chuck of uninhabitable rock and ice "Greenland", "clean coal" advocates are trying to sell people a bill of goods. And how about ethanol; doesn't it seem odd to anyone that all the loudest deniers of ethanol's multiple problems as a fuel have profit motives?
My point is that all of the alternative-energy options need to be carefully considered *before* they are implemented, not built with a gold-rush mentality. Thus, while profits for innovators have to be part of the equation, they should NEVER, EVER trump sober consideration of possible down-sides. JC, Fairbanks, AK (Sent Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:38 PM

commentary

American innovation can be a wonderful thing, but it will NEVER cure poor/corrupt management, unqualified personnel, incompetent and inept(if not corrupt) city officials, backroom sweetheart deals, rigged bids, kickbacks, $400-600 a square foot construction projects, or an oppressive, arrogant, bullying, and secretive management styles. Without getting to the core of this problem and correcting it, whatever THAT takes, more money would just be more losses to the taxpayers and more money for them to disappear, as previously stated. What are chances that there are some creative, imaginative, and innovative things happening at City Hall as we speak, trying to explain this pool fiasco?