Caveman_Coder

More like a "death to the viability of Facebook as a means of advertising your business."

Small businesses will do what they did before Facebook, as it turns out, small businesses did exist before the creation of Facebook...

> It is estimated that data centers consume between three and five percent of the world's power. Apparently, bigger is better when it comes to data center operations.

This is only going to increase as the world becomes more and more digitally driven. I bet we'll see a lot of consolidation in the upcoming years. There will still be smaller "edge" data centers in key markets, but the strategy of building large 200MW+ data centers is here to stay.

> Another strategy that data center operators are using to become more energy efficient is to look for natural resources to benefit. Google for example is pumping seawater into one of their data centers. At Microsoft, engineers are exploring housing data centers underwater. Technically speaking, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, computer scientists have found that by slashing the common queries or "caches" energy consumption can be greatly reduced.

I wonder if larger energy savings will come from the software side of things or from the traditional mechanical engineering side (more efficient cooling systems/electric power infrastructures). Either way, its definitely an interesting industry to keep an eye on.

The article doesn't mention it, but i'd bet that Google/FB/Microsoft are using liquid cooling (or at least testing the feasibility of it) in their massive data centers.

All this DevOps talk about "monitoring" and "observability" isn't new in any way. The process control/critical infrastructure industry figured out these concepts years ago.

Maybe I should change careers and become a "DevOps" consultant, I could preach all these "new" ideas and concepts that were commonplace in my former profession. It'd be new to all the MBAs and managers so it'd look good and they'd just throw money at me. I'd be the guy applying "monitoring/observability/alarming" concepts from the electric grid to large software systems...I bet someone would pay me if I had a good looking blog and re-introduced these old ideas in a new and "flashy" way.

I've done the same, on one occasion I still got the offer. The only time I've given tax info is when I was working for an industry that mandated it (due to working on critical infrastructure and DOE regulatory requirements).

I did the same. Every time I moved jobs I got a pay raise because the number I provided was above what I was currently making. In a few cases, they offered well above what "I wish I had," which was a nice bonus.

> "...data center guys..."

Where else would they be?

> With Guardtime’s distributed and cryptographically sound integrity solutions combined with PNNL’s next generation transactional energy delivery infrastructure we enable next generation security and integrity while allowing for increased efficiency and reliability for both energy users and energy producers.

Is the above quote just buzzwords and marketing material or is there really something to it? Is there anyone that is knowledgeable on blockchain that would be able to elucidate on how specifically blockchain can help in ways that are different/better than our current industry-tested solutions? I'm not too knowledgeable on blockchain, and I have a hard time seeing the reported value of it for electric utility grid application.

> A smart-city architecture allows “better” information-sharing, strong identity management, better blanket surveillance as well as targeted surveillance, it benefits law-enforcement with better access to location tracking.

> In conclusion, one doesn’t have to wear a tinfoil hat to understand that these solutions will swing both ways. And some are going to get hurt. To all those who think smart-cities will liberate humanity from repressive regimes, please think again.

For a deeper perspective on this point, I'd highly recommend reading "The Net Delusion" by Evgeny Morozov [1]. He focuses on the moral/ethical/political/sociological aspects of modern technological change and systems that other optimistic authors intentionally fail to cover.

> Smart cities implemented over complex self serving bureaucratic processes can become an electronic manifestation of stupidity written in code.

This sentence immediately reminded me of Kafka's "The Castle."

The future could be either empowering or oppressive, or both to some degree, depending largely on how we legislatively control the technological systems we're building.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Net-Delusion-Dark-Internet-Freedom/dp...

> This would be used to verify exchanges within a grid edge energy-delivery system, he said. “Grid edge devices lack visibility, control and security to conduct real-time energy transactions with the required security, speed and scale,” he said.

Visibility - ICCP/TASE.2

Control - Currently operated by a transmission/distribution control center EMS

Security - NERC-CIP [1] and in-house electric grid security professionals

Real-time energy transactions - Energy Imbalance Market (WECC) [2][2a]

I'm not sure how exactly blockchain is going to help provide a better solution compared to what we currently are using. I'm not a blockchain expert, but the solutions the article mentions seem very vague and lacking in substance. My question, and this is for hopefully someone working in the energy+blockchain or electric grid cybersecurity fields, but how specifically does having using blockchain increase security for energy market participants?

[1] https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/56236.pdf

[2] http://www.nerc.com/pa/Stand/Pages/CIPStandards.aspx

[2a] https://energypolicy.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/EIM-...

TLDR:

Step 1 - Gain access to traditional corporate IT networks

Step 2 - Gain access to operation ICS/SCADA/EMS systems (hard because traditional corporate IT systems and operational systems are "air gapped")

Step 3 - Manipulate field equipment/trip breakers/cause power outages (rare because doing so requires a high level of understanding of the compromised power system, as well as having compromised more than one utility/transmission company)

I'd assume a lot of people would be worried about losing power (tripping bkrs open), but I'd be concerned about closing bkrs that are currently open, as there could be a crew in the field working on a line that they think is de-energized. You could actually do a lot of damage closing a 500kV transmission line by simply closing one of the breakers on an open-ended line (considering closing phase angle concerns).

Is there anyone here on HN that works on electric grid cybersecurity that could chime in?

What is somewhat alarming about the security of electric grid systems is that the industry seems to be going to a "security-through-procedural-compliance" attitude. Let's hope the NERC-CIP people are codifying the right principles in their standards [1].

[1] http://www.nerc.com/pa/Stand/Pages/CIPStandards.aspx

> I find it incredibly difficult to believe that there are people who's ONLY platform of communication in a digital age is Facebook. I don't mean 'primary', I mean 'only'.

When I told my family I was getting off of those types of platforms and only using email/phone/text, there was absolutely no issues on their end keeping up with communication. If anything, I was able to cut down on the chatter and only keep up comms with two really close friends, the rest were just acquaintances that I don't mind not getting updates on.

> "Yeah but what about their water consumption?"

Sure, they use a lot of water compared to you and I, but their WUE is one of the best in the whole datacenter industry. Aside from reliability, GCP focuses on reducing PUE and WUE. Their efforts in reducing PUE have outpaced their WUE gains, but believe me, they're constantly working on improving their water consumption.

When they starting using AI in their datacenters[1] they saw pretty significant gains in both PUE and WUE, as an example.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/21/12246258/google-deepmind-...

EDIT: Added Google AI datacenter story link

> "it use to be that talking about politics at work was considered bad form, and now people think its practically their duty to do so."

I think talking about politics at work is more prevalent in "tech" companies where people have bought the whole "making the world a better place" shtick. When I was at Google it seemed that political discussions were more common than technical ones (personal experience and completely anecdotal fwiw).

When I moved to less "tech" environments (utility industry), the talk at work is about the tech we're working on, our families, and our hobbies. Much more laid back. Even though I know there are co-workers with differing political opinions (one with a Trump bumper sticker and a few others who were staunch Clinton supporters), it doesn't really matter. We're here to do a job (a.k.a. trade our time and engineering capabilities for money), support the business, and build systems for the electric grid, not opine about our political opinions.

Shocker...people have different opinions about public policy.

Fair point. I edited my comment to make clear that I meant first celebrity-president without having had any other political position.

TLDR: "E.On has become the first company to have secured an Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) contract in Britain last year to announce the completion of its project, following the installation and connection of a 10MW battery at a biomass plant last month."

This is very exciting news, not only for those in the utility industry (system operators, owners, generators), the regulatory authorities, and battery/energy storage technologies, but also for those interested in shifting more and more of our generation to renewable resources.

E.On - https://www.eon.com/en.html

> "Trump may have doomed us to an endless flood of celebrity politicians..."

We've had numerous celebrity politicians before Trump. Franken, Reagan, Arnold, Ventura, Springer, etc... The list continues[1] and it definitely wasn't Trump that was the first (although he holds the highest position of any of the other celebrity-actor-politicians, without having first held another political position).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actor-politicians#USA

EDIT: Clarified my comment on Trump being the "first" celebrity-president

> "...on a spectrum"

Does "on a spectrum" mean "autistic" the way you used it?

Thanks for the response. Sounds like your work is kind of an development/efficiency/automation/process-improvement SME that works with all levels of employee, from the devs to the CTO, which requires understanding of both IT systems/dev and business.

I've seen co-workers with a similar set of responsibilities but they called themselves "Corporate Efficiency Analysts," with the better ones coming from tech backgrounds (sometimes having acquired an MBA after years of development), and the poorer ones only having "general business" experience.

> Turning a huge HVAC system off and back on again quickly if it's not designed for that would probably reduce its operating efficiency.

A lot of Rooftop Unit (RTU) controls typically take an on/off command from the Building Management System (BMS) and the BMS programming will have a deadband range (+/- 2°F) in which no action will occur to prevent the repeated cycling of RTUs.

What responsibilities does an "Agile Technical Coach" have and what did you do for the business? (I'm curious because in most of the industries I've worked in, the teams have been extremely skeptical of Agile coaches/consultants)

I'm sure you can find specific cases where it isn't the case for critical systems, but for the most part, I've found it to be true (having worked in the nuclear power, power electronics, electric grid, and ICS/SCADA industries). Sure there are cases where software fails, but in my personal, and anecdotal, experiences, software serving critical infrastructure is held to a much higher standard.

TLDR:

EPA top administrator Scott Pruitt announced he will formally sign a proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era rule aimed at slashing emissions from the power sector. A draft of the repeal argued the Obama administration's rule was illegal because it directed utilities to reduce emissions only achievable "outside the fenceline" of individual power plants, such as purchasing renewable energy or closing coal plants in favor of natural gas investment.

+100. I spent almost two decades in SV before moving to PHX and agree completely with your tips.

I've found that since moving to PHX, the hustling and "revolutionizing/world-changing/disruptive" rhetoric is kept to a minimum. Tech isn't its "own world" as much here and most of my friends and co-workers in the tech community end up talking about things we all enjoy doing as hobbies, or our families, more than anything. It's nice to find professional peers who enjoy hiking in Sedona, not worrying about how many PRs their open-source project has, or how many retweets their presentation at RubyConf got.

Its totally subjective, but its my kind of environment.

No problem, glad I could provide some insight. Also...

The whole "diversity-in-tech" is less of an issue here (from my anecdotal experience). My current team is 70/30 men/women and while we'll occasionally talk about the larger tech community, rarely does it devolve into talks about diversity/gender representation/social issues. My team cares about technology, solving problems related to the electric grid, and maintaining our systems so the operators can ensure power is restored quickly and promptly to our customers.

Its a pretty good gig in that respect. My lead is a Mexican-American female that if you asked her about it, she'd say she is an professional Electrical Engineer first and foremost. I like that kind of environment, as opposed to when I worked for Google and it was a constant barrage of "women/diversity candidate/veteran in tech." My wife is a software engineer as well and she likes the fact that her current company doesn't treat her as the token female developer, something that she experience all too much in SV.

> "I would be interested in seeing startups trying to solve suburban problems and producing suburban jobs."

In my opinion these aren't technical problems to be solved by a team of engineers in their SF Bay offices. They are political problems that need legislative solutions. To think that we can outsource political problems to the realm of tech is misguided and won't solve our long-standing public policy issues.

Are you in PHX? I get the sentiment about us being full. Traffic on I-17/51S in the morning is hideous.

Warning: totally subjective opinions to follow...

The PHX community is "much better" in my opinion because the people I meet at various Dev groups aren't doing it because they want to be "software-developer famous"...if you know what I mean. When I was in SV I went to tons of meetups where it seemed like the devs were just trying to create something to get themselves "likes/favs/PRs/followers/etc" on HN/GitHub/Twitter. It was a weird kind of in-group celebrity that I detest.

Here in PHX, I don't really see any of that. I went to a Linux Users Meetup and it was pretty chill, nobody was pushing their GitHub repo/blog/Twitter on the audience, it was just a laid back discussion on the latest happenings, but not the software-developer-gossip nonsense. When I go to a .NET developer group meetup, we discuss .NET Core and Azure...just the facts. We don't discuss the latest thing Scott Hanselman said on Twitter, or what so-and-so said about the latest <insert topic>. The discussion tend to be about the tech, how to use it, and what the new features allow us to do, that's it.

Some of us don't want to be famous for our GitHub, we want to work with nice teammates on cool engineering problems that matter. I found my current employment (working on electrical grid software for a major SW utility company) to fit perfectly with my interests and background.

I had a loss in total comp, however, my wife and I are not your typical consumerist-minded people, we like to save and invest. "Make half a million, but live like we make 100k" has kind of been our motto. The move to PHX was a drop in total comp, a net increase in the amount we could save/invest given the COL, and a much larger increase in total happiness.

I do not regret moving from SV one bit.