Grid-Interop: Dinner - “Biologizing” the Smart Grid (Chris Allen)
Energy in the natural world is even more expensive than in the human world; as a result, life tends to organize extremely energy-efficient designs and systems, optimizing energy use at every turn. This “out-of-the-box” thinking could be invaluable to us in the design and implementation of the Smart Grid – which we will only have one chance to get right. Chris Allen of the Biomimicry Guild presents truly provocative insights for us to consider, pointing to complex adaptive systems in biology, how they’ve achieved resilience, and how Smart Grid issues might be similarly “biologized” to achieve longevity. Included will be case examples of companies that thought they had insoluble problems – before applying biomimicry principles and emulating the eons-old successful strategies found in Nature.
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Sustainable Innovation Network 2010-2012
Comments
Nature is more efficient because it adapts
I agree with this comment. I think a key reason is that organisms adapt by themselves, but products don't. A truly biomimetic smart grid would be highly modular and would evolve on its own. Instead, the existent grid is mostly monolithic and fixed in stone until we change it. The alternative viewpoint is to consider the collective organization of all persons involved in designing, building, maintaining, operating, etc the grid as the adaptive element of the grid. But I don't think that collective organization is able to operate as effectively as nature does.
Fil Salustri
Designing for Adaptation
Fil, a good example of designing in adaptability is REGEN Energy's power controller that uses swarm logic and distributing intelligence to reduce peak loading. The controllers communicate wirelessly and 'decide' when specific devices should cycle (see articles in the December 2007 and February 2009 newsletters). REGEN is actively involved in Smart Grid initiatives to scale up the approach.
A challenge is lack of trust in distributed intelligence, even though evidence shows that centralised control of complex systems can be very brittle. The last time I spoke with REGEN, the power controllers were achieving results that the designers had not considered and were at a loss to fully explain. Although the results were valuable, I can see where a power grid controller might be concerned about 'taking the hand off the wheel'.