[1st-mile-nm] 10 Ways Big Data is Remaking Energy

[Richard Lowenberg]

 10 Ways Big Data is Remaking Energy

 http://gigaom.com/cleantech/10-ways-big-data-is-remaking-energy/

 By Katie Fehrenbacher Jan. 29, 2012

 One of the most obvious trends from the big smart grid conference 
 DistribuTECH last week was how much analytics and big data tools will be 
 used to try to remake energy in 2012, from curbing energy consumption, 
 to reducing energy loss, to adding in more clean power to the grid. 
 Here’s 10 ways that analytics and big data will start to shape the 
 production and consumption of energy in the world:

 1). Weather data: Having a finger on the pulse of constantly changing 
 weather data on a micro and macro level can help utilities, building 
 owners and consumers optimize their energy consumption habits and 
 promote energy efficiency. Startup EnergyHub recently partnered with 
 sensor network player Earth Networks to use weather data to make a more 
 efficient form of demand response (utilities controlling power 
 consumption). Other startups like EcoFactor, Opower and Tendril also use 
 weather data as part of their energy behavioral analytics.

 IBM has long sold a weather prediction service called Deep Thunder to 
 municipalities, organizations and utilities, which use it to do things 
 like tailor their services, change routes, or generate more or less 
 power. I think weather data could some day provide a platform for some 
 very important next generation services and applications for energy 
 efficiency, much in the way that location data is used as a platform for 
 a variety of services.

 2). Cell phone data: Cell phones in our pockets are essentially 
 palm-sized sensors and computers sending a constant stream of 
 information to the cloud where companies could one day use that data to 
 create energy efficiency and better energy products. And yes, a lot of 
 that data is private information, but after that data is anonymized it 
 can be used for the greater good of the community — particularly via the 
 billions of cell phones in developing countries. A startup called Jana 
 does research projects around cell phone data in developing countries, 
 and looks to work with NGOs on programs to create better infrastructure, 
 energy infrastructure and resources.

 3). Connected thermostat data: One of the biggest trends from 
 DistribuTECH this year was the overwhelming amount of smart thermostats 
 that are now being sold and marketed. Companies can incorporate that 
 thermostat data into data bases that can be used to promote energy 
 efficiency. EcoFactor’s service remembers every time a home owner 
 overrides the automated smart thermostat system and changes the 
 personalized service to accommodate that manual override. Using 100,000 
 connected thermostats (which produce 5 billion data points each month) 
 EnergyHub found some interesting statistics like folks in cold climates 
 have a lower average heating temperature set point than households in 
 warmer states.

 4). Hadoop & energy databases: The open source data base tool Hadoop is 
 well known — and oft used — in the computing worlds. But in the energy 
 and utility worlds it’s quite rare. However, as the amount of energy 
 data has started to rapidly grow from the smart grid, some companies are 
 embracing Hadoop as a key way to manage energy info. Opower tells me 
 it’s using Hadoop (and the company commercializing Hadoop, Cloudera) as 
 an important way to manage its massive energy data streams. Likewise PJM 
 has turned to Hadoop as a way to organize the energy data coming off of 
 a synchophaser sensor project.

 5). Clean power data: One of the main goals for the smart grid is to 
 enable the addition of more variable clean power, which is far more 
 unreliable than fossil fuels (the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t 
 blow 24/7). Analytics crunching the data from a utilities’ energy supply 
 and demand can help make clean power a little less variable, by being 
 able to more accurately predict the environmental conditions, as well as 
 more accurately assess demand from energy users.

 6). Electric car data: Electric cars will by their nature be connected 
 cars, using information technology to manage the vehicle charge and 
 location. Utilities will be closely tracking the charging habits of 
 electric car owners in order to make sure that the grid isn’t overloaded 
 in some early adopter neighborhoods.

 7). Power line sensors: One of the areas of low hanging fruit for the 
 power grid is the simple task of helping utilities find blackouts more 
 easily and be able to monitor and manage grid outages. That’s partly 
 where sensor systems called synchophasers come in, which can in real 
 time monitor the health of power lines, collecting multiple data streams 
 per second. Expect all major networks to have synchophaser systems 
 installed over the coming years.

 8). Real estate data: Startups like First Fuel Software can use big 
 data to make super accurate assessments about buildings and ways to 
 reduce the energy consumption of buildings — without any extra hardware 
 or monitoring software being installed at the building. Things like 
 weather around the building, demographics of the people in the building, 
 and the building’s historical energy consumption can be used to create 
 an accurate projection. The best way to make a building more energy 
 efficient is by getting as much data about the building’s energy use as 
 possible.

 9). Variable pricing: Some day when electricity is sold throughout the 
 world at different prices dependent on supply and demand, massive data 
 bases will be needed. This type of variable pricing is offered in some 
 places in the world, but if it ever becomes ubiquitous it will help curb 
 consumption, by offering high prices when energy is being over used.

 10). Using behavioral analytics to curb energy consumption: Getting 
 into the brains of energy users is the job of startups like Opower and 
 Tendril (after it acquired Gr0unded Power.) Essentially these companies 
 have collected data on consumers and demographics and they are using it 
 to try to guess the best way to influence the consumer to do things like 
 upgrade their home appliances and lights to more efficient ones.



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 Richard Lowenberg
 1st-Mile Institute
 Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
 505-989-9110 / 505-603-5200
 www.1st-mile.com
 rl at 1st-mile.com
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