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Rio De Janeiro is a bustling metropolis in a booming country–and, increasingly, an example of how government and business leaders can cooperate to make cities work better. Join the live blog today for a second day of coverage of speeches, panels and hallway discussions.
Update:
Here’s Ginni Rometty, IBM’s senior vice president for Sales, Marketing and Strategy (and IBM’s next CEO) talking about how to build a smarter city.
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by Andy Bochman, author of the Smart Grid Security Blog and an Energy Security Lead for IBM’s Rational division.
Next month, I’ll be meeting with key industry experts to discuss Security metrics at the EnerSec Smart Grid Security Summit in San Diego. We’ll covering the challenges with, and business benefits of measuring utilities’ smart grid with the right metrics, including organizational security maturity. This got me thinking about consumers and behavioral economics and what we value as important. Is it convenience, social acceptance, security, privacy, price? Continue Reading »
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Even though energy mavens have been advocating smart meter deployments for nearly a decade, an IBM survey of 10,000 people in 15 countries shows that consumers are confused about what a smart grid is and what it means to them. It’s startling new evidence that if you want a smarter planet, you have to communicate better about it.
Sixty percent of those surveyed did not know the meaning of the terms “smart grid” or “smart meters.” Half of them didn’t understand the term “time of use pricing,” which is essential to understanding the benefits these technologies offer such as improved reliability, lower costs and increased efficiency. Thirty percent were unaware of the basic mechanism used for charging for electricity–the amount paid per kilowatt hour.
This confusion helps explain why the consumer uptake has been slower than hoped for, according to Michael Valocchi, IBM’s vice president for Global Energy & Utilities. His prescription: Utilities, regulators, government officials and technology companies need to go back to basics when communicating with consumers. “Today, the industry is focused on engineering and regulatory matters. All the companies in the ecosystem have to connect better with the consumer.”
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by Joseph Santamaria, Chief Information Officer for United Illuminating, a diversified energy delivery company serving a total of 690,000 electric and natural gas utility customers in 66 communities across Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Demand for electricity is forecast to grow by 33% in the next 20 years, with nearly 100% growth in Asia. According to Lux Research, there will be nine times the smart grid data in 2020 that there is today. IBM has been active in the smart grid space long before the term was coined and continues to show strong momentum worldwide, including emerging markets like Korea and Brazil – and the growing area of securing the grid. While energy providers look for ways keep up with this demand, we are also very cognizant of the implications that a more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent grid can have on security. On the path to a smarter planet, it has become an imperative to build security in at the foundation of these smart grids.
Today IBM announced that they are working with United Illuminating to proactively do this. United Illuminating serves a total of 690,000 electric and natural gas utility customers in 66 communities across Connecticut and Massachusetts in the US. Right now, we are in the process of upgrading our meter grid to advanced meters to improve customer experience and operational efficiencies. Clearly the impact that these new meters is having on our customers is very beneficial, however , these upgrades also could pose some security risks that needed to be mitigated.
For help in doing this, United Illuminating turned to IBM’s security expertise. By using IBM’s WebSphere DataPower appliance, we’ve been able to gain greater authentication, authorization, and accounting/auditing capabilities for our smart meters that have dramatically reduced our exposure. As a result, we have been able to secure 50,000 of our advanced meters, with the goal of supporting a total of 80,000 by the end of 2011. And in the near future, all of our 350,000 electric meters will be covered by Data Power security features.
While we continue to observe the world around us becoming smarter, there is a need to keep pace and infuse digital intelligence into industries, infrastructures, processes and cities. Organizations that proactively embrace security and ensure it is designed into the foundation of their smart grid infrastructures will be those that benefit most from today’s smarter planet.
If you are interested in hearing more about this topic and news, IBM is hosting a Twitter Session at 3:30pm-4:30pm ET later today (Wednesday, July 13) with participants from both IBM and UIL. This will be an opportunity for you to tweet questions and receive responses instantly. If you are interested, please follow hashtag #IBMSG.
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Some of the early conversions to smart grid technologies in the United States prompted backlashes from consumers. Utility customers in California and Texas, for instance, complained that the meters weren’t accurate and their monthly bills were soaring. These situations gave smart metering a bad name. But a large-scale rollout of smart meters s on Europe’s island of Malta that’s being managed by IBM hasn’t sparked the same kind of reaction.
Why not? Jean-Christophe Samin, project manager for IBM’s smart grid deployment for electricity and water in Malta, says the engagement teaches two important lessons:
1) Communities shouldn’t do smart metering in a vacuum. It should be part of a comprehensive makeover of how their utilities manage their businesses–the entire information chain from meter to billing system. “Smart metering needs to go hand in hand with the larger transformation,” Samin says.
2) It’s important to start small with a pilot version of the system. You work the problems out without major disruptions to the utilities or consumers. “This is a fundamental step before launching the massive rollout,” he says.
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IBM has plenty of company when it comes to deep concern and deep thinking about the future of cities. Today, at the Intelligent Cities Forum in Washington, D.C., hundreds of urban planners, city leaders and data mavens are gathering to share insights on ways to make cities more successful and sustainable using data, analytics, collaboration and foresight. The A Smarter Planet blog will feature live blogging from the event, so please return here frequently to see updates.
To see a live video of the event, click here. To learn more about the event, click here. To follow or participate via Twitter, use #icities.
Anne Altman, general manager, Global Public Sector, IBM, talks about why cities are so important to having a sustainable planet.
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Superconductivity demonstrated
When IBM scientists J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller discovered the first practical high-temperature superconductor material 25 years ago, they were considered rebels–and maybe even a little crazy. That’s because they were experimenting with ceramic materials that were deemed by many scientists to be inappropriate for the task.
Their stunning breakthrough altered the landscape of physics. The two were able to demonstrate the phenomenon of superconductivity in materials at a temperature that was 50% higher than had been shown before–theoretically making it possible for the effect to be used in commercial applications. For their work, they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987.
But it is only now, a quarter of a century later, that the early promise of this breakthrough is beginning to pay off for humanity. Electrical utilities are now deploying superconductor materials in their distribution lines, and they’re also being used or tested in wind turbines, metal processing equipment, magnetic-resonance-imaging scanners and Maglev trains.
For scientists, there are two thrilling moments in the life cycle of innovations–the initial breakthrough and the big bang of impact. This is one of those moments, and it’s felt not just by the two scientists involved but the entire staff of IBM Research. “You don’t just work for the fun of it. You’re working to have impact,” says Christophe P. Rossel, a physicist at IBM’s Zurich lab, where the superconductor work took place. “Looking at the breakthrough of a colleague is an inspiration every day.”
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In the next couple of years, there are expected to be 2 billion people connected to the Internet. At the same time, the instrumentation and interconnection of the world’s human-made and natural systems is exploding–which could mean that there soon will be more things connected to the Internet than there are people who are connected. This Internet of Things promises to give people a much better understanding of how complex systems work, so they can be tinkered with to make them work better. But it also opens up a whole new sphere of insecurity. Each of those sensors is, potentially, a point of vulnerability to people who write malicious code for fun, or profit, or to further their political goals.
Andreas Wespi
Harm could come in many forms, but some of the most hurtful scenarios for attacks on the Internet of Things include electrical power and communications blackouts, disruption of air traffic and roadway traffic lights, interruption of oil and gas exploration and contamination of water. So far, these concerns are mostly theoretical, but the spread of Stuxnet, the computer worm that targets control systems at nuclear power plants, shows just how dangerous such attacks can be. The worm knocked out about 1,000 centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant last year–and atomic energy experts warn that it has the capability of creating Chernobyl-like disasters. “We have to understand the new threats and understand how to protect our own infrastructure,” says Andreas Wespi, a cybersecurity expert at IBM Research’s Zurich laboratory.
Attacks will likely come in two ways: to the sensors and to the servers that gather, store, and analyze information from the sensors. Both kinds of vulnerability must be addressed.
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By David Bartlett
How can a hospital ensure thousands of pieces of clinical equipment are where they need to be when they are needed? How can a utility prevent breaks in vast networks of underground water mains, some dating back hundreds of years? How can power companies maintain their grids and reduce the number of power outages with fewer truck rolls?
Those are the kinds of challenges that are bringing together 7,000 clients, partners and IBMers at the annual PULSE conference in Las Vegas this week. Continue Reading »
