A Service of Energy CentralEnergyBlogs.com Logo

A lot have been written about national energy policy by using analytic thinking. As suggested by Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Instead of analytic thinking, synthetic thinking, as it is done by architects, will help us solve the national energy policy problem.
 
The two commentaries Is a National Energy Policy Possible?and We Have a National Policy ... or Not raised by Bill Opalka in www.renewablesbiz.com, can be responded in a very simple way. The answer is how the energy policy impacts a nation, not how it impacts one the subsystems, like the Transmission System (TS) or the Smart Grid (SG), as it is currently being done.
 
In the post Huge Value Destruction as Disruptive Technologies Impact the Smart Power Service, I introduced for the first time the idea of the emerging holistic Smart Power Service (SPS) to the EWPC Blog. The SPS is different from the Traditional Power Service in that demand is not longer an externality. The SPS become increasingly important as we shift from the guarantee of cheap energy to that of cheap information.
 
The late Dr. Russell Ackoff deserves most of the credit of this whole post. According to Wikipedia he was a pioneer in the field of operations research, systems thinking and management science. Dr Ackoff suggested a system principle based on synthetic thinking, which I translate to the following using as examples the SG or the TS:
 
National Energy Policy: I only improve the SG or the TS in a way to improve the whole Smart Power Service (SPS) for the nation as a whole. Dr. Ackoff even suggests that if we can make the SG or the TS worst and make the whole SPS better we should do it. The National Energy Policy should be used to build the best SPS not necessarily the best SG nor the best TS, as it is being erroneosly done by using analytic thinking.
 
One of the key architecting characteristics of the SPS is demand integration to the power system. To do that, I have proposed a paradigm shift to the emerging Electricity Without Price Control Architecting Framework (EWPC-AF), which is introduced in the EWPC Blog post States that Implement a Heterogeneous Grid are Poised to be the Winners.
 

Under the EWPC-AF there are two structuring levels. The energy policy level separates the SPS in two weakly coupled and highly cohesive subsystems: a primary regulated delivery subsystem which I understand should evolve as the SG, and a complementary business system, in which emerges the architecting competition level.

In that second level,
Second Generation Retailers (2GRs) compete in the retail and wholesale open markets to develop ongoing business models, following the well know Silicon Valley Model, which changes the discussion from one to regulate the need to deploy smart meters to another about letting the market realize SPS value, while empowering the customer to freely decide.

José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, Ph.D. - LinkedIn

 

The main argument is that, by inaction, each State Government should be responsible to their constituencies for a very costly mistake that is being made by letting the smart grid process continue with...

Design Thinking demand side radical disruptive innovations to the power industry at the "fuzzy front end" are facilitated with a paradigm shift from the obsolete, dysfunctional, and highly c...

Smart Grid Command & Control: The Death of the Giant Brain in the Sky, an article written by Jesse Berst on SmartGridNews.com, is a very timely article that reflects the ongoing mental model...

A single integrated emergent power service system is optimally structured into the enterprize and the grid subsystems, that are highly cohesive with lightly coupled interfaces. The enterprise subsyste...

Realizing Smart Grid Value Without Deploying Smart Meters is a highly relevant piece of news on the Smart Grid Observer of January 25th, 2010. That news fully supports the argument of the EWPC article...

  Taking in consideration the article Decentralizing Electricity: The Coming Energy Revolution, by Stefan Schultz in SPIEGEL ONLINE, I ask the following questions: Is Germany ahead of the...

There is a consensus that only high tech firms are able to cross the Home Energy Management chasm. While utilities still “owned their markets,” by state regulatory fiat and while state gov...

EnronOnline's goodwill and Enron's goodwill were not only inseparable, but mutually reinforcing to each other. That is the synthesis of an introduction to the EWPC article Is Google the New Enron?, wh...

Even though a debate has already reaffirmed without doubt that “The answer should be a strong NO!,”  there is additional evidence and requirements to support the “strong NO!&rdq...

 
Toolbox
Blog Editor
Search
Calendar
Recent CommentsRecent Comments

RSS
Energy Central
Power Network


Copyright © 1996-2010 by CyberTech, Inc. All rights reserved.
Energy Central ® is a registered trademark of CyberTech, Incorporated.
CyberTech does not warrant that the information or services of Energy Central will meet any specific requirements; nor will it be error free or uninterrupted; nor shall CyberTech be liable for any indirect, incidental or consequential damages (including lost data, information or profits) sustained or incurred in connection with the use of, operation of, or inability to use Energy Central.
2821 S. Parker Rd. Ste 1105 Aurora, CO 80014
Contact: Phone - 303-782-5510 Fax - 303-782-5331 or service@energycentral.com.