Caveman_Coder

> "Nah. Read your Popper or your Rawls. Every modern moral philosopher..."

I'd also recommend Carl Schmitt [1]

[1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schmitt/#ConPolCriLib

Thanks for the excellent references, the PNNL report was a very interesting read.

> "Autonomous Demand Response for frequency regulation is real..."

I wasn't saying that ADR wasn't "real," just that it's not something we're currently doing for frequency control in actual practice...and of course that might change as engineers continue researching and pushing the field further. It definitely looks like ADR solutions are on the horizon though.

> "...by requesting non critical loads to turn off or throttle themselves when the frequency drops too low."

I'm not sure about other utility companies, but when I was a TSO we never did this. For the most part, AGC worked fine to maintain frequency.

http://www.nerc.com/files/bal-005-0_2b.pdf

This is good. Hopefully we'll see further R&D and improvements in energy storage technologies as well to support increased renewable energy generation.

Ah, thanks for the reply. I misunderstood your original comment. I thought you were talking about interfacing with existing utility company distribution networks instead of being completely distributed.

> "how hard it’s going to be to rebuild the electric grid..."

- ~80% of transmission lines are down

- >90% of distribution lines are down

- Fuel for their generation plants is desperately needed and needs to be shipped in on a regular basis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_Electric_Power_Aut...)

Basically, from an electrical-grid-restoration perspective ("Blackstart"), its a nightmare.

TLDR: The hurricane destroyed 80% of the transmission lines and 90% of the distribution lines.

Distributed renewable energy sharing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15349405

TLDR:

"Currently, the energy market works in such a way that energy suppliers receive data from a (smart) meter, a bill is issued to the customer, and then the bill is paid via a monetary transaction from one bank to another. With the Jouliette token, the De Ceuvel community members are able to make secure (peer- to- peer) transactions directly between their own virtual currency ‘wallets’. Blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, ensures that these transactions are secure and decentralized, with the history of all transactions being shared with all the community members, so they can be (automatically) verified without needing the intervention of a “trusted” bank.

What makes this unique ecosystem possible at De Ceuvel is the fact that the site features a private (renewable energy-based) smart-grid. This enables the community to exchange renewable energy (independent of the national electricity grid) produced by their photovoltaic (PV) panels, without any restrictions, and therefore avoid existing market barriers. With the Jouliette platform, the De Ceuvel community can manage their own micro-economy, and unlike purely speculative currencies, the Jouliette tokens are backed up by physical energy production. Beyond just enabling energy exchange, the community will be exploring further applications for the Jouliette, such as using it to trade for goods at the De Ceuvel Cafe, to facilitate a local time-banking system, and to integrate other intra-community services, such as a car-sharing program."

> "I'm hoping LFTR reactors can make it to production."

Have you heard of Flibe Energy [1]? They are working on LFTR technologies. The founder (Kirk Sorensen) is an outspoken nuclear energy advocate, I'd definitely recommend checking out his work/lectures [2].

[1] http://flibe-energy.com/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVSmf_qmkbg

> "When the frequency drops below 50Hz, it suggests that demand is outpacing supply, and vice-versa when the frequency is above 50Hz."

As a former Transmission System Operator I can tell you the most likely scenario you see this is when generation trips offline (demand exceeds supply for a short time).

I've sat in an Arizona control room, 1700MW of NW hydro would trip offline and we'd see a massive drop in interconnect frequency.

> "Most of the smokers I've met are generally clever, creative folks."

- I grew up poor, and everyone in the community smoked, kids/teens included, and I'd bet you wouldn't describe us as "clever, creative folks."

> "It seems there are more software developer smokers than the general population. Does the work beget it? obvious filter bias"

- Definitely filter bias going on here.

I thought it was already well known that the whole push for teaching kids to code as well as all the other initiatives to increase diversity was all about expanding the labor supply.

TLDR:

Google Search -> DuckDuckGo (free)

Gmail, Calendar & Contacts -> FastMail (paid)

YouTube -> Vimeo (free with paid options)

Google Maps -> Apple Maps (free), OpenStreetMap (free)

Google Drive -> Resilio Sync (free with paid options)

Android -> iOS (paid)

Google Chrome -> Safari (free), Firefox (free), Brave (free)

Blogger -> Ghost (paid), WordPress (free with paid options)

Google Hangouts -> Zoom (free with paid options), appear.in (free with paid option)

Google Allo -> Signal (free)

> "If your AC is more than 5 years old..."

Most A/C units will work perfectly fine for 10-15 years if proper maintenance is being done.

What makes Twitter "too much of a public good" in your opinion?

What positive value does it provide in your opinion?

> "I am fully engulfed in this field and am working on these things now."

What aspect of the field are you working in currently?

We (Arizona) are getting "into this in a big way."

Existing AZ Solar:

- Agua Caliente (~400MW)

- Arlington Valley (300MW)

- Solana (280MW)

- Mesquite (150MW)

Future AZ Solar:

- Sterling (1200MW)

- Hualapai (340MW)

- Hyder Valley (325MW)

- Sonoran Solar (300MW)

- Crossroads (215MW)

- Quartzsite (100MW) [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Arizona#Large_p...

The problem is that utility company distribution system operators can issue clearances (ensuring a de-energized state) on their systems disconnects, but not on individual home system disconnects. Its not a tough problem to work around though, all the troublemen would have to do is to ensure the line is dead before installing their shorts and grounds, if the line wasn't dead, they'd stop work and figure out which network was backfeeding the line they were trying to work on.

This is true (Former submariner here). We store food in the torpedo room, engine room, fan rooms, etc...pretty much anywhere that won't impede dealing with casualty response.

I'd still see that posing problems for crews of electricians. A customer home safety disconnect could fail to operate in which case you'd be feeding the supposedly "dead" distribution line.

How exactly is it racist, care to elaborate?

> "...military-industrial masters"

Who are these "masters" if you had to elaborate? CEOs of Raytheon/Halliburton/General Dynamics/Lockhead Martin/etc?

> "Can they send massive over-voltages over power lines to destroy all plugged-in electronic devices in every home and business, and create widespread explosions and fires at the push of a button?"

No, that's isn't how it works.

> "And repairing them takes much longer."

Repairing underground lines takes longer than overhead lines.

Are these safety disconnects you're talking about at the home, or are you talking about the utilities circuit breakers?

> "...and I can only think that it's because the utilities are so profit-focused that they put lowering infrastructure costs above losing a little revenue due to power outages here and there."

There is more that goes into transmission line engineering than cost. "Agility" is important, and it is a lot harder to tap underground transmission lines than overhead lines. Outages, while less likely for underground, are actually, on average, longer than overhead line outages.

How does class fit into your view of inequality? Is it a bigger predictor of a person's future than say race or gender? I'm curious.

> "...aren't nearly as bad in comparison."

Certainly from the perspective of rich whites, poor whites, on the other hand, are probably the least advantaged group we have today, but I could be wrong.

Care to elaborate please?

I mean specifics, for example most people agree that waterboarding, torture, etc. are "evil," but what about things like PsyOps? I want to know what actions the commenter thinks are evil versus what actions are legitimate.