Comments on: Smart Grid Data About to Swamp Utilities

By: The Android of the Smart Grid: openPDC

The Android of the Smart Grid: openPDC — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:54:30 +0000

[...] the power industry will be rapidly turning to a variety of methods for collecting, storing and processing the petabytes of data that will be unleashed. While many utilities will want to stick with proprietary systems [...]

By: Why the Smart Grid Needs to Ditch Its Old Skool Architecture, Now

Why the Smart Grid Needs to Ditch Its Old Skool Architecture, Now — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:48:09 +0000

[...] it will help with the transition. In the end it’s all about the most efficient way to process a whole lot of information about energy and develop systems that can quickly react to, and interact with, the millions of points on the [...]

By: How to Sell Your Smart Grid Biz to IBM

How to Sell Your Smart Grid Biz to IBM — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:00:21 +0000

[...] area is business analytics, says Bartels. There will be an influx of data created by adding digital intelligence to the power grid and that will require an increasing need [...]

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:42:08 +0000

(Again, posting while possessing very little actual knowledge....)

Why wouldn't power companies simply send their data over the power lines? Broadband over power line is established technology isn't it?

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:01:21 +0000

Bob, you're right. I've been working too long with mobile devices that use dedicated GPRS and CDMA data plans. (sorry)

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:19:05 +0000

Let me first clearly state - I know "jack" about the cost of transmitting data.

That out of the way - "$7/mo for 1 MB"?

Just seems extremely high. There's something that I'm not understanding.

I'm looking at a wireless internet connection to replace my satellite ISP. For service over the basic fee/5 gig use limit the company that I'm considering charges $2.50 per gig.

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:01:58 +0000

Sorry, I meant data plan costs over the carrier's network. If a smart meter is transmitting 33MB/month that's got to be quite expensive. Data aggregators such as Kore and Jasper will usually charge about $7/month for 1 MB plan.

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:24:46 +0000

Cost to store a month's data (if there was any reason to store all that data)?

Let's see. They could go to NewEgg and get a 1.5TB hard drive for about $110.

33MB = 0.00003142 TB.

Could store the data from 47,740 customers on one 1.TB HD.

Cost would be $0.0023 per customer per month.

(Warning: Morning coffee deficient math.)

That said, why would the utility company want or need to store all that detail?

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:38:04 +0000

400MB/meter/year works out to about 33/MB/month. That's a lot of data usage per month. What are the estimates for data plan costs per month to support a typical smart meter?

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:30:48 +0000

Andy - I think I addressed most of that in my reply up the page.

There's a difference between saving too much data (every single 15 minute reading/whatever from every single meter) and not saving enough.

Remember, here's where this discussion started...

"If 140 million smart meters are installed over the next ten years they could produce a massive 100 petabytes (1 PB is 1 quadrillion bytes) of information,...."

It's all about sampling and summary statistics.