{"id":4411,"date":"2013-06-29T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2013-06-28T21:29:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T01:29:16","slug":"the-cloudy-day-doesnt-last-for-an-entire-month-john-s-quarterman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/the-cloudy-day-doesnt-last-for-an-entire-month-john-s-quarterman.html","title":{"rendered":"The cloudy day doesn\u2019t last for an entire month \u2013John S. Quarterman @ GA PSC 2013-06-18"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nThe disruptive challenge electric utilities face\r\nis like\r\n\r\n\"1:<\/a>\r\ntelephone companies faced years ago, as Edison Electric Institute recently pointed out.\r\nCircuit switching 20 years ago is like distributed solar power and\r\nthe smart grid it needs now;\r\nthis is what I described\r\nat\r\n\r\nthe Georgia Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday 18 June 2013<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHi, I’m John Quarterman, I’m from Lowndes County, down near the Florida line.\r\nThese videos I’ve been taking are with Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange\r\nand you’ll find them on YouTube later.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Two<\/a>\r\n\r\nNow I’d like to commend Georgia Power for helping fund our Industrial Authority\r\ndown in Lowndes County to do a strategic plan.\r\nAnd in the focus groups they did with that, they discovered there’s\r\nat least\r\n\r\ntwo things everybody wants<\/a>: business, education, health care, the\r\npeople in general:\r\n

    \r\n
  1. solar power\r\n
  2. and fast, affordable Internet access everywhere\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    \r\nThese two things are actually related.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Vogtle<\/a>\r\nThrough the Internet I discovered that Plant Hatch,\r\none of the two nuclear units there has actually been down for almost\r\nan entire month this year.\r\nOne of the units at Plant Vogtle has been down for many days.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\n\r\nActually, Vogtle 2 was\r\n\r\ndown for most of March<\/a>,\r\naccording to NRC data.\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nAnd this is related to the Internet in that; let’s go back 20 years, 1993.\r\nProbably most of you weren’t on the Internet, because most people weren’t.\r\nBut the controversy back then is going to sound very familiar.\r\n

    \r\nBig incumbent telephone companies, like AT&T, BellSouth,\r\nthe regional BellSouth, like the regional power companies now.\r\nThey wanted, they were arguing that you’ve got to have circuit switching\r\nto have reliable, dependable, sustainable communications.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThose words sound familiar?\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nThey’re the same words Tom Fanning, CEO of regional electric utility Southern Company, Georgia Power’s parent company, used to describe\r\nbaseload capacity generation such as from natural gas, nuclear, or\r\ncoal<\/a>.\r\nThey’re how electric utilities think of what they’ve done for a hundred years.\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nOK, now what’s circuit switching.\r\nWell, it’s where you have a pair of copper [wires] or fiber optic\r\ndedicated all the way between you and me in order to have a\r\ntelephone conversation.\r\nAnd nobody else can use those dedicated resources while that call\r\nis in process.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Circuit<\/a>\r\n

    \r\nAnd that’s contrasted with the packet switching\r\nof the Internet, where lots of little packets \r\nget interleaved from various people to various people\r\nover the same twisted pair or fiber optics.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nHere’s \r\na pithy comparison from 2000<\/a>, when this controversy was still live.\r\n

    \r\nDesigned in 1878, circuit-switched networks reserve a dedicated channel\r\nfor the entire communication.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nHm,\r\n\r\n1878, the same year electric arc lighting was installed at the Paris\r\nExposition<\/a>,\r\nleading to electric power networks in multiple cities within years.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nBack to the PSC:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nTwenty years later, if you still have a land line in your house,\r\nthe first little bit of twisted pair, OK, that’s dedicated, but\r\nfrom there on it’s all packet switching.\r\nIt may sound to you like the same old telephone network,\r\nbut it’s not.\r\nThe Internet has won completely.\r\n

    \r\nOK, so nowadays we have….\r\n\r\n\"Noon<\/a>\r\nWhy does\r\n\r\nEdison Electric Institute say that solar power is\r\na disruptive force<\/a> for the cozy century-long baseload business\r\nmodel of the big utilities?\r\nBecause distributed solar power generates peak power at peak load time,\r\nin the middle of the afternoon when all those air conditioners are running.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nI figured the PSC knew the implication\r\nDavid Roberts explained in Grist:\r\n

    \r\nProblem is, providing power to meet peak load is where utilities make\r\na huge chunk of their money. Peak power is the most expensive power. So\r\nwhen solar panels provide peak power, they aren\u2019t just reducing demand,\r\nthey\u2019re reducing demand for the utilities\u2019 most valuable product.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nUtilities really don’t like being treated as backup batteries\r\nfor solar panels.\r\nAnd I was telling the PSC it’s actually even worse than that;\r\nit’s the other way around:\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Packet<\/a>\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nOK, so it seems to me is what we need is more solar power to act as\r\na backup for when those nukes are offline.\r\nBecause you may have days that are cloudy,\r\nbut the cloudy day doesn’t last for an entire month.\r\nEven the night doesn’t last for an entire month.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Solar<\/a>\r\nAnd in addition, as the prices of solar power keep going down (solar has\r\nalready\r\nachieved\r\ngrid parity<\/a>), we’re going to see solar get even cheaper, and we’re\r\ngoing to be able to generate a lot more power.\r\nWe’ll be able to take; this is a little controversial, but we’ll\r\nbe able to take even more coal plants offline.\r\nWe’ll be able to conserve our air and water and produce jobs and profit\r\nfor Georgia, and for Georgia Power.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Solar<\/a>\r\nSo I’d like to ask the PSC to encourage Georgia Power to get on with\r\na smart grid, so that Georgia Power can serve reliable, dependable,\r\nsolar energy to the citizens of Georgia.\r\nThank you.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nGeorgia Power’s\r\n\r\nmotto<\/a>:\r\n

    \r\nA Citizen Wherever We Serve\r\n
    \r\nAs a company, we want to be judged not only by the service we provide,\r\nbut also for what we do to improve the quality of life for all people\r\nin the places where we live and work.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nAnd it is the Georgia Public Service Commission’s job to regulate\r\nutilities for the benefit of the citizens of Georgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nDistributed solar power is an opportunity.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Carbon<\/a>\r\nNatural gas is not an opportunity:\r\nnatural gas is fracking polluting water and causing earthquakes\r\nuntil the carbon bubble pops.\r\n

    \r\nNuclear power is not an opportunity:\r\nnuclear power is Crystal River off due to concrete cracks\r\nand San Onofre shut down because of bad pipes\r\nand Kewaunee closed because it costs too much\r\nand Georgia Power’s\r\n\r\nthree-legged boondoggle at Plant Vogtle<\/a>\r\nthat’s already 19 months late and a billion dollars overbudget.\r\nWhile\r\n\r\nGoogle already installed almost as much wind and solar power<\/a>\r\nas both new Vogtle nukes are supposed to produce,\r\nand Google did it on time and on budget\r\nfor less than the cost overruns at Vogtle.\r\n

    \r\nCoal is not an opportunity.\r\nEven Georgia Power is shutting down coal plants.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Fukushima<\/a>\r\n\r\nDistributed solar power on a million rooftops<\/a>,\r\nespecially if combined with\r\nwind off the Georgia coast\r\nlike\r\n\r\nTEPCO is deploying off Fukushima<\/a>,\r\nconnected through a smart grid,\r\nis reliable, dependable, and sustainable power,\r\nplus jobs and clean air and water for Georgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    GA PSC has an opportunity right now to help Georgia Power lead\r\n\r\n\"Brother<\/a>\r\n\r\nthe state and the region and the country out of the coal-clouded past\r\nstraight into that bright sunny future for ourselves and for\r\n\r\nthose who come after us<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The disruptive challenge electric utilities face is like telephone companies faced years ago, as Edison Electric Institute recently pointed out. Circuit switching 20 years ago is like distributed solar power and the smart grid it needs now; this is what I described at the Georgia Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday 18 June 2013. Hi, I’m […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[216,14,264,265,16,17,8,18,2,132,11,6124,104,24,55,36],"tags":[6459,6470,6469,6461,210,372,824,6467,2906,2500,6465,6532,8753,6535,841,6463,8704,6140,8754,8755,8706,786,785,272,8707,6462,8701,8708,6460,8699,8741,548,2498,8702,6536,12,7,562,8737,6533,105,107,6534,1135,8714,215,6466,2117,6464,6,8727,8716],"class_list":["post-4411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coal","category-economy","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-environment","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-internet-access-speed","category-lake","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-solar","category-water","category-wind","tag-18-june-2013","tag-244-washington-street-sw","tag-30334-9052","tag-administrative-session","tag-aquifer","tag-atlanta","tag-baseload","tag-bubba-mcdonald-4-west-georgia","tag-business-model","tag-capacity","tag-chairman-chuck-eaton-3-metro-atlanta","tag-circuit-switching","tag-coal","tag-dependable","tag-distributed-solar-power","tag-doug-everrett-1-south-georgia","tag-economy","tag-edison-electric-institute","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-environment","tag-federal-energy-regulatory-commission","tag-ferc","tag-ga","tag-ga-psc","tag-ga-public-service-commission","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-georgia-power-proposed-closing-of-coal-plants","tag-government","tag-internet-access-speed","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-jon-wellinghoff","tag-lake","tag-landline","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-packet-switching","tag-plant-hatch","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-reliable","tag-smart-grid","tag-solar","tag-south-georgia","tag-stan-wise-5-north-georgia","tag-sustainable","tag-tim-echols-2-east-georgia","tag-valdosta","tag-water","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-199","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4411"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4432,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions\/4432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}