one would not
be entirely off-base if they approached the problem from a "How do we
stay up, regardless of the grid's condition" vs. "How do we go green",
---
Not those whose jobs are to ensure the operation of the facility, but others in management\corporate making this big picture decisions are more concerned with the optics than they are of the uptime.
Not those whose jobs are to ensure the operation of the facility, but others in management\corporate making this big picture decisions are more concerned with the optics than they are of the uptime.
From: "Mark Tinka" <mark@tinka.africa>
To: nanog@nanog.org
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 10:32:25 AM
Subject: Re: Texas ERCOT power shortages (again) April 13
On 4/14/21 17:12, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
> Bringing it back to the topic on hand: How do we keep the grid up? Or
> plan for it not being up?
I think "planning for the grid not being up" is more within our control
than the former :-).
Data centres serving base power load from solar PV, for example, can be
one place to start if they have the land (or rooftop space), in
economies where they are not only allowed to do grid feed-in, but are
also able to draw those credits from the grid in the evenings and/or on
cloud days. Of course, if the grid allows this but is unreliable, then
this doesn't work very well. But if it does, low-hanging fruit.
I think data centres are already good at performing demand side
management with how they use energy, given that they are now classified
by how much electrical energy that they can deliver vs. how much space
they have to sell. So while these activities help alleviate pressure on
the national grid, they probably have a more meaningful impact that
gives the data centre the opportunity to operate its own mini grid that
would survive a national grid outage, while minimizing its carbon
footprint. But this requires even more deliberate, multi-faceted
initiatives from the data centre operator, which costs money.
National grid prices are only going in one direction, the world over.
Couple that with an expected reduction in generation capacity (reliable
or otherwise) due to the rising levels of electrification, one would not
be entirely off-base if they approached the problem from a "How do we
stay up, regardless of the grid's condition" vs. "How do we go green",
because I believe the answer to both those questions innately calls for
renewable generation, operated at a very small scale to the rest of the
nation.
Think about this: there are more mobile phones in Africa than there are
people with electricity. At its most basic, those phones need to be
charged. The same can be said for most of the developing world. Care to
imagine what shambles the power companies will be in when those people
finally get on to the grid? It's not like they don't need their
Facebook, Google or Instagram :-)...
Mark.
To: nanog@nanog.org
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 10:32:25 AM
Subject: Re: Texas ERCOT power shortages (again) April 13
On 4/14/21 17:12, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
> Bringing it back to the topic on hand: How do we keep the grid up? Or
> plan for it not being up?
I think "planning for the grid not being up" is more within our control
than the former :-).
Data centres serving base power load from solar PV, for example, can be
one place to start if they have the land (or rooftop space), in
economies where they are not only allowed to do grid feed-in, but are
also able to draw those credits from the grid in the evenings and/or on
cloud days. Of course, if the grid allows this but is unreliable, then
this doesn't work very well. But if it does, low-hanging fruit.
I think data centres are already good at performing demand side
management with how they use energy, given that they are now classified
by how much electrical energy that they can deliver vs. how much space
they have to sell. So while these activities help alleviate pressure on
the national grid, they probably have a more meaningful impact that
gives the data centre the opportunity to operate its own mini grid that
would survive a national grid outage, while minimizing its carbon
footprint. But this requires even more deliberate, multi-faceted
initiatives from the data centre operator, which costs money.
National grid prices are only going in one direction, the world over.
Couple that with an expected reduction in generation capacity (reliable
or otherwise) due to the rising levels of electrification, one would not
be entirely off-base if they approached the problem from a "How do we
stay up, regardless of the grid's condition" vs. "How do we go green",
because I believe the answer to both those questions innately calls for
renewable generation, operated at a very small scale to the rest of the
nation.
Think about this: there are more mobile phones in Africa than there are
people with electricity. At its most basic, those phones need to be
charged. The same can be said for most of the developing world. Care to
imagine what shambles the power companies will be in when those people
finally get on to the grid? It's not like they don't need their
Facebook, Google or Instagram :-)...
Mark.