Hacking the Smart Grid

I am all for electric cars but am also all for nuclear to generate the majority of our utility power, accompanied by recycling spent fuel . Natural gas will help, wind should work in some areas and there is Ethanol, etc. But all of these, apart from US natural gas, will not make much of a dent in offsetting our consumption of fossil fuels. There is a huge amount of disinformation in the public domain on the topic of renewable energy as there is with global warming.

Do we need to do something about our heavy dependence on foreign fossil fuels, despite their extremely high efficiency? Without doubt.

But have you heard any serious discussion or promotion of nuclear from The Prophet's administration? Perhaps you believe you have. What I believe we have heard so far is mostly propaganda, populist button-pushing, and ideas that are easy for The Prophet to read to us off his teleprompter. The one below is of the third kind.

The Prophet's "stimulus plan" (spend-indebt-tax (us), to install what he and his minions have decided is good for us) includes reengineering America's electronic infrastruture into what is called, a "smart grid". Basically nationwide computer-controlled power management. This, of course, would include companion computers in your home which can be centrally controlled. Sound like something you have heard of before?

Anyway, Josh Pennell, president and CEO of IOActive, a technology research firm in Seattle, testified before the Dept of Homeland Security last week. "With a smart grid, anybody with an eBay account and $80 can go and buy a smart meter, reverse-engineer it, and figure out how to attack the grid".

I doubt this cautionary warning will be taken seriously by or stop The Prophet's crowd. His view, I am certain, will be that "science" will take care of these issues.

We shall see.

If you are one of those end of days apokylips gods gonna suck you out of your shoes when christ comes back and gives you the thumbs up kinda people then thanks but no thanks on you input for the future.

Nope. But, we shall see.

Yeah, the smart grid idea seems quite fallible. I don’t think we will be able to switch to renewable energy sources until it is economically beneficial to. I believe the government should start making it economically beneficial with tax breaks, grants, and other motivators.

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Much of the smart grid already exists.

Utility companies have been monitoring and electronically switching to the most efficient use of the grid for decades. They have too. The actual physical infastructure is so sadly lacking that utilities have no recourse except to make the most efficient use of it. If they hadn't, blackouts and brownouts would be much more common than they are.

The current grid just isn't capable of handling peak summer loads. We need more than a smart grid. We need the actual physical infastructure. Doing more with less only works to a point, and we are well past that point.