I do not care about the PUCO….

I want districts and within each energy management, smart meters at every demand node.

CPP is out side the PUCO's jurisdiction so would the districts energy management.

If the district had generation then it would be subjected to local laws within the district.

Then its about the district owning the meters, then it could also be about owning the grid. It could be also about regulating the grid. It would have access points for generation supplied into it, but would also develop it own generation within it.

That’s one grid not two grids that interconnects to the rest of the region. It would be a smart grid and eligible for federal dollars it begins with the meters, take up were Dennis left off.

The meter linked to parcel data and a registry of all appliances and also generation, like solar panels. That’s about product ID’ S and then related ratings, if not energy star guess what you can get rebates!  The districts energy management would manage the rebates.

The energy management system would maintain the product data and work with local vendors.

The goal is to reduce the consumption, then also to monitor the sources of generation. If a district had a power plant then it would be monitored, the megawatts and also emissions.

The aggregate demand of the district may be offset enough to replace the dirty systems. Separating the grid from generation. The grid should be high tech and low maintenance, under ground out of site. Section by section rectified and made totally accountable.

You may be paying more but it would be cleaner, less obtrusive and more reliable.

Some solar, some wind, some gas recovery from waste and some NG turbines. Its about reducing demand and then refining the supply. The future should be modular and decentralized, you may be buying from other locations…but not from dirty facilities.

A smart system generates to demand real time….the current systems pushes it into the grid based on the last meter reading…a best guess if to much it is discharged, yep wasted.

We really do not want them selling that extra generation to other locations, we are getting the fallout from it. We want our demand met and that’s it, the growing energy needs is totally bullshit. They have excess capacity and they want to sell it outside the region.

  A coupon for free lightbulbs, sent with the monthly mail, would have accomplished the same objective of reducing consumption, at lower cost and carbon footprint.

 Tonight, the news media outlets are saying the same thing, Norm--but what recourse do we have against this outrage? A lawsuit?  Who will take on and change the appointment process?

The entire board of commissioners should be replaced as soon as possible, and the appointment process must be changed, as citizens rather than Governors must select the next board members.

The rates are going up….

So will the generation facilities be changing and how would we know?

We have Avon, Timberlake and Lakeshore and all local and all burning coal. How will all this change that?

The rate security stabilization plan simply raises the rates.

8 percent in 2009, 7 percent in 2010 and 8 percent in 2011

That’s a planned 23% increase in three years?

But these three facilities are changing how?

The smart grid is said to help consumers manage their energy use better? That’s not the reason for it, the reason is so that the providers can manage generation better. If we cut back then they cut back. But think about that they only make money on a kilowatt it is very contrarian for them to encourage us to cut back.

There is money for smart grid technology, and energy star rebates. We could see real reductions but I would not expect to see the utilities promoting that reduction.

Separating the bill, part of it for billing, part of it for transportation across the grid as in paying for the actual grid. Then the other part of the bill is for the generation.

The utilizes need a complete smart grid and selling generation is all they should do. That generation only to match the consumption of those that are buying it as it is consumed. If they are wasting it then that’s their inefficiency.

Getting the smart grid requires a modular approach, the grid is modular interconnected but in fact modular. Aligning modular geographic districts would align on one of many functional aspects.

Using technology is related to rudimentary blocks or modules. That’s like nodes that are also represented in a dataset. The parcel is the smallest defined part of the whole, they are all interconnected. The parcel data is the primary data set.

To address energy management then each node is defined and tracked as augmenting data of a single actual parcel. If billing is done separate from generation then that is linked to the parcel of land and managed in alignment with other aspects related to the parcel of land….its efficient use of technology. Total consumption for a district, total generation within the district. Those are data summaries and could be defined to the parcel level. Then queried or sorted by levels, residential, commercial and industrial. Within a district...a district metric one of many. 

The district could and should get all new parallel systems built, all new when done the old is removed. Seriously the ability to do that is a direct function of the federal treasuries ability to leverage capital. That is why they should be cycling interest free bonds and set to recover the capital slowly over time. Currently the capital appears to be getting lost and will more than likely be exhausted with no real or consequential changes made.

I think water and sewer are not as complex as electricity but and they are municipally managed. That’s why Cleveland has CPP and what Kucinich did was use the exiting laws to establish a separate energy grid.

It’s the grid that could be municipal owned and operated, if within a district then its a matter of consumption kilowatt as in residential commercial or industrial within a define district. Then generation within the defined district, if the district reduces consumption and adds generation….it would be addressing it locally.

If its a municipal grid then it could be all managed by municipal workers and cover all the grids, water, sewer, roads bridges, commuter and commercial rail, electricity, natural gas and communication. The grid sells to both the demand side and also the supply side.

It's about taking it all the way, if they want to deregulate it and make it all competitive then fine but the grid needs to be well funded and high technology. Its about pay per use and managed billing that proliferates data tables that are all linked, its intelligent government.

Getting utility consumption records linked to parcels, then linking them and then each parcel identified within a district kilowatts and Mcfs’ those numbers come with smart meters and lead into it all, it will take a long time and people are barely thinking this way.

The metrics change, if funding is applied then it has to be registered to the location and within the district and demonstrate the changes. If you upgrade a furnace and insulate and add a solar panel it should show up as a reduction in demand. The suppliers separated from the grid they would only offer generation to meet demand real time. Rows and rows of residential homes have very consistent demand it could be built to supply them with little or no maintenance for decades. 

They really need to get serious and having a regional system of interconnected districts would call for development of high technology CAD systems that define the entire network. That with satellite maps and layers linked to parcels it is all real-time and highly accurate.

Goal of regional districts:

To increase the amount of disposable capital within each regional sub district at the household level.

To increase the value of real capital and efficient uses of that capital.

Glad to see reported that public outrage over the incompetency and/or bad faith of the PUCO Commissioners and the illegal and/or divisive business practices of FirstEnergy regarding the fleecing of citizens of Northeast Ohio for $ millions has resulted in the review of the lightbulb distribution program discussed above.

Such a multi-million-dollar problem should not be forgiven. People at PUCO and FirstEnergy, and their consulting, lobbying and law firms, put this program in place with intent to take excessive money from ratepayers, and change the rates paid, to enrich FirstEnergy, and we must know who and why are responsible and have them fired. This is the type of corruption that has destroyed our region and country.

This must be the beginning of a series on the "Crisis at FirstEnergy", in keeping with the Cleveland Plain Dealer NEO in crisis concept, for on NEO being in crisis the PD is correct, and highly responsible.

Disrupt IT

Even if the grid is so smart you can get a current use graph on your PC, not much will change. This smart stuff will serve us and/or be used to steal from us. Only we will be fully informed, moment by moment of the suffering we are experiencing now. (my cynical view)

Then for First Energy to promote energy saving among customers is a con-flict of interest. The real motive must be to fund energy system upgrades to their equipment because of gov mandates or salary increases via milking customers desire to go green.

Ohio needs to produce or buy (not from China) products that really do use less energy. If customers can buy products that use less energy without paying the green tax, we will be using less energy. Green tax compensates a company for the green research and green development and green production of a new green product or and to cover the loss of sales and disposal of brown products. Green products for the same price as brown products and what to do with brown products? Fill up the coal mines, fill in the Grand Canyon!!

Less is more, heck we beat and bleach wheat until it's white and lifeless, then we add stuff, color it brown and call it enriched bread w/fiber. We can't do the same with energy and expect it to be cheaper for users.

I have been offered to buy green electricity from a Florida distributor (delivered by coal). I gonna have my name on a plaque on a solar collector in Florida. I don't need a smart meter to say grid power and it's management/marketing team needs to be fixed.

I learned it does not matter even when people have the numbers in front of them, they most often do not know how to interpret the values. With the exception of industry which has to understand what value represents.

You have a meter on your home we all do, and we consume…try to understand that consumption is not measured real time, its measured in a delay and in intervals and has variability.

The grid is charged on an estimate of demand, they cannot under charge it. Thats a very real difference; the variance between actual generation and actual demand. That variance can be reduced, having a wind or solar source offers variable energy; as it is not consistent. So as the clouds form and the wind dies down the other sources begin ramping up.

 We are looking forward to a more modern and dynamic system or commonly called a smart grid. Your individual household is the demand side, it also has variability and that as a sum of all consumers needs to meet generation closer to equivalence. That can never really be attained but striving for that reduces the variance which is waste. Otherwise the extra generation is discharged, the amount of generation in a shared grid compared to the total consumption, that variances it is currently not really unknown, as it forecasted and estimated.

The coal fired generation often run full blast, then the owners can sell up to its full capacity onto the grid. Add a wind tubine and solar array they still can run and will at full blast.

The actual regulations should be a possibility and at all levels, but without a higher degree of accountability and the ability to regulate and control it, it is not efficient.  Its also highly suceptable to corruption and one sided manipulation. 

Then other aspects are part of the total cost functions or the multiple costs functions that are all interelated, your household costs, the cost of doing or running a business and the cost of maintaining and supporting the grid. Every single aspect needs to be addressed at every level.

We should not buy from the Chinese? I disagree.. We are now very indebt to them they are holding our treasury bonds. We have to keep moving forward with them and as we go we must learn to communicate with them, we are not and that is causing other problems.

I could if I had the capital design my own line of motorcycles, then have them manufactured in Asia and then set up a service and support network here. But more than half of the costs would be incurred on this side. If I manufactured here then my prices would be the same as Harley Davidson or maybe not? Careful consideration should be given to that. 

We do not need more high paying jobs, we need more low paying jobs and a relative lower cost of living as Asia’s costs rise ours must fall, balance is funny like that the Yin and Yang

A good industry today is that of translating, a service to build bridges to unravel the mystery with mutual respect. I have to laugh who is more likely to change and adapt an American or the Chinese? I have found it easier in some cases to communicate with an Asian that is using English as a second language. But I also sense that often they are or have a residual jade to them, maybe from the last American they had communicated with?