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The Austin Electrical Grid – A Smart Enterprise

The so-called smart grid is more than just putting out smart meters in the network. Andres Carvallo talks about the challenges Austin Energy has faced as they evolved their electrical grid into an enterprise network that today controls over 500,000 devices. Carvallo explains how these devices collectively generate, on an annual basis, hundreds of terabytes of data.

The challenges don’t end with data management, however, as the idea of user-generated electricity (e.g. solar panel on houses that feed into the grid) requires entirely new ways of billing.  This is because the relationship between consumer and energy distributor becomes more of a bi-directional relationship, as opposed to the one-way nature of the legacy grid. 

Note: This episode was sponsored by and filmed at the Parks Associates-produced 2009 Connections Conference in Santa Clara, CA. Parks Associates is planning a Smart Energy Summit in conjunction with Austin Energy to be held January 25 to 27, 2010 in Austin, Texas. 

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