A Short Tale: The Smart Grid of the Future - Blackouts and the Internet

One of my children lives in a remote region of Africa, and despite the isolation of the region they are blessed with electric power and the internet.  The services, however, due to natural limitations, have low reliability and quality and we have had a hard time to Skype with each other for the last several months. 

Then on Monday, things changed dramatically.  Skype was working perfectly.  We were having uninterrupted audio and video communication of the highest quality when I realized that something was different. 

The scene of my daughter cuddling my grandson in the twilight seemed too perfect and idyllic.  The colors and shadows projected by some dim light reproduced a picture of a Rembrandt nature.  

The light of a candle was producing the unexpected live images.   But since my daughter loves candles I did not question the lack of light right away.

Then she said: we have had no electric power for a couple of hours and I am not sure for how long the laptop battery will last.

I then started to wonder and imagine the possible causes.  The reason for the high-speed internet became obvious: the majority of the community was off the net and Facebook because they did not have battery storage.  My daughter was one of the few internet users at that moment.

I was a bit surprised when I thought to myself, briefly, that it would be great if every night they could have a bit of blackout – so that I could see my beautiful children and grandson.

Then I started to think about smart grids: this merging of the electric power and information technology infrastructures, and thought of how this fusion needs to be done in an integrated way.  The lack of a coordinated design can impact both infrastructures and together lose electricity and communication.

Meanwhile, I realized how much dependent on the Internet I am - and selfish - by wishing a short blackout so that we could Skype with them. 

Perhaps it was the love for my family which led me to think of such an unorthodox thought, perhaps it was my unconscious desire that the smart grid of the future will not let us down on both services at the same time, after all although each entity (electric power and information) enable and support each other they have their identity and independent functionalities which should not be compromised.

Cheers,

Paulo