Mention smart grid and most people think of advanced electric meters sending reams of information to utilities.
That information is hoped to help consumers make better decisions about when and why they use energy.
But there is another key component to the consumer-facing smart grid beyond the so-called smart meter. Utilities need powerful new, Google-like data centers to make sense of all the information they will receive.
Electricity use data will flow into utility data centers as quickly as every 15 minutes instead of once a day
Utilities are in varying degrees of preparing their data centers for this new smart-grid world, says Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior director of marketing for network and smart grid systems at Cisco Systems. Some are focused first on the communications infrastructure (i.e.: installing smart meters). Others have already begun to tackle the necessary data center build outs.
In either case, the industry appears to be facing a massive remaking of its compute and storage infrastructure over the next several years to deliver on the promise of a more intelligent, more responsive electric grid.
The challenging facing these typically slow moving companies is speed. In the past they might receive data about electric use once a day. In the next few years, that could accelerate to every 15 minutes.
“We’re definitely working with utilities on their data-center infrastructure,” says Lasser-Raab. Some say they expect their facilities to carry them for several years. Others are making plans to boost capacity.
“It’s an industry that is really energized,” she said. And that is a necessary change, both in the data center and outside of it.
[...] via Smart Grids Will Bring Massive Data Center Buildouts At Utilities « TechPulse 360. [...]