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Steve Hamm in
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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Steve Hamm in
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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Steve Hamm in
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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Steve Hamm in
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 »
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Adam Christensen in
Editor’s Note: Following is a post from Andy Bochman, a smart grid security expert from IBM, and a new contributor to the Smarter Planet blog.
Jeju Island. Image courtesy of Korea Times.
Whether it’s to do with price volatility, supply uncertainty or climate change, countries achieve greater energy security when they reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and begin to replace them with a combination of energy efficiency measures and renewable power sources.
In developed countries, to support greatly increased use of renewables and capture efficiency savings in the transmission and distribution of electricity requires an update to aging power grids – to arrive at a destination now commonly referred to as the Smart Grid.
What do I mean by “aging”? In North America, some of our electrical infrastructure assets (not to mention human assets) are over 50 years old, and one can find equipment (and humans running grid systems) of a similar vintage in Europe and other fully developed regions as well.
But in emerging and rapidly developing countries like China, India and Brazil, lots of infrastructure is being built from scratch, with modern equipment that’s IT and IP enabled and based upon recently formed and forming interoperability standards.
What’s a security guy think about this? This is a huge opportunity for baking security in from the get-go, yielding the fielding of secure grid systems, as well as for costs savings realized from not having to bolt security on later on. They don’t have to recapitulate all the tortuous intermediate phases the US is going through trying to add security to systems that were never designed to accommodate it.
There’s no denying these markets are taking steps. Today IBM announced it has developed a new technology, now piloted with Shanghai Power (part of China’s State Grid, the largest utility in the world), to help energy companies manage power outages more effectively. Since the project’s completion, Shanghai Power’s sale of electricity has increased by 50 million kWh per month, which is equal to an incremental revenue of 35 million Yuan (US$5.1 million) a month.
And move across the map to South Korea… IBM also announced its involvement in a renewable energy management system on Jeju Island, part of a smart grid project in South Korea that is moving right along.
These are only two example that show how systems are being built and modified to withstand the energy demand and need for efficiency we no doubt face.
Regarding security the choice is in their (these countries’) hands. IBM can help them achieve more secure solutions with its Secure by Design frameworks. But it’s up to them to decide that’s how they want to be. It’s nice to know to it’s possible.
Andy is the energy lead for IBM Software and author of the Smart Grid Blog. He can also be found on Twitter.
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Steve Hamm in
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Game fanatics have been enjoying simulation games ever since SimCity was first introduced in 1989, and electronic games are used for military and corporate training, but IBMer Phaedra Boinodiris designs so-called serious games to help people solve complex business and social problems.
Today, IBM is releasing her latest creation, CityOne, an on-line game that can help city leaders, businesses, and students figure out how to make cities work better by simulating transportation, environmental, business and logistical problems. The free game challenges players to complete missions involving energy, water, banking, and retailing. “It’s like an onion,” she says. “You can jump in and play it for 20 minutes, or you can stay and go deep and learn how cities are actually using different technologies.”
If Boinodiris doesn’t seem like a prototypical IBMer, it’s because she’s not. She was previously an entrepreneur and founder of two companies–one an Internet game portal and the other a game consulting company. Both her parents are IBM retirees, though.
Fittingly, it was a game of sorts that brought Boinodiris and IBM together. Three years ago, when she was studying for an MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she participated in a business case competition versus another university. The task, posed by IBM, was coming up with an innovative way to get business people interested in business-process management software. Her idea was to draw them in by designing an electronic game that would simulate how BPM software works in an imaginary business. One of her teammates was so sure that IBM would never accept a game as a solution that he up and quit the team on the spot. He was wrong. Sandy Carter, an IBM vice president in the software group who was one of the judges of the competition, liked the idea so much that she hired Boinodiris as an intern–with the task of designing the game she had proposed.
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Adam Christensen in
Energy in America — and the world in general — doesn’t meet the tests of a true system. For one thing, today’s energy landscape is not truly connected. Second, many of the components and subsystems are not instrumented, or they are instrumented differently from region to region. And, finally, our current energy system is not as adaptable. This is the gist of the call to action being delivered today at the GridWise Global Forum in Washington by IBM Chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano.
It is a message that cannot be heard and acted on soon enough. Demand for electricity is forecast to grow by 33% in the next 20 years. In Asia that number soars to 100%. One of the drivers behind this growth is technology innovation such as electric vehicles (EV). Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota and others are all rolling out electric vehicles for mass-market consumption. The U.S. government is spending billions to get one million electric or hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015. EVs represent a major step forward in cutting our greenhouse gas emissions, but only if our power grids can keep pace.
The current electric grid is complex, aging and increasingly overextended. Eisenhower-era transformers and moon-shot era meters are connected to outdated communications networks. These are all issues we’ve addressed here on this blog for the past two years. Fortunately, utility companies are already working to transform their systems. Upgrades are being implemented that allow electricity to flow in two directions and accept power produced by businesses and consumers. Part of this transformation is the communication infrastructure. Today we announced new consulting, design and implementation services that combine with network technology from industry partners to help utilities transform their communications networks and make the transition from traditional to “smart” grids.
IBM’s experience with more than 150 smart grid projects was applied to this offering, shaping a portfolio of services that will help companies create secure and scalable infrastructures integrated from the data center all the way to the sensor or smart meter. Part of IBM’s Intelligent Utility Network solution, these services are supported by partners ADVA Optical Networking, Alvarion, Ciena, Cisco, Itron North America, Juniper Networks, Landis & Gyr North America, Motorola, RuggedCom, Sensus and Trilliant.
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Adam Christensen in
IBM’s @smarterplanet will be hosting a Twitterstorm on Monday, September 20, from 12 – 1 pm PT.
This one-hour conversation will feature Andy Bochman, one of IBM’s smart grid experts and an active blogger on the subject of smart grid, smart grid security and electric vehicles. Andy will be discussing various topics associated with the smart grid and electric vehicles (EVs) including:
- What are the top challenges we face with the increased use of electric cars?
- How will a ‘smarter’ power grid support the growth of the EV industry?
- What type of infrastructure will we need in our communities to support powering EVs?
- How do we afford to build our infrastructure when EVs aren’t widely available yet – or sell the cars when the infrastructure to power them doesn’t exist yet?
- What advances in battery technology will help make EVs a reality? Can EV’s make better use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar?
Join the conversation by following @smarterplanet and tag your tweets #IBMgrid.
Andy Bochman is the energy security lead for IBM’s Rational division, where the focus is on securing the software that runs the Smart Grid. Andy is a contributor to industry and national security working groups on energy security and cyber security. He lives in Boston, is an active member of the MIT Energy Club, and is the founder of the Smart Grid Security and DOD Energy Blogs. Follow Andy at @sgsblog.
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Steve Hamm in
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There’s no shortage of contests for tech startups in this world, but IBM’s SmartCamp is different. The focus is on companies that aim to make the world work better, and is aligned with our Smarter Planet agenda. We launched the program last year in Dublin and conducted regional contests this spring and summer in Stockholm, Boston, Tel Aviv, London, and Silicon Valley. (This video tells the Silicon Valley story.) There are still two contests left, in Paris on Sept. 24 and Copenhagen on Oct. 7, before the finals in Dublin on Nov. 16. So there’s time for entrepreneurs to get involved. Check it out at www.ibm.com/ie/smarterplanet/smartcamp.
