Below are presentations from a range of experts at a conference entitled The High Road to a True Smart Grid, held at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on 28 January 2014. The program cut through misunderstandings about the value of the ‘smart meters’ being rolled out across the country, and the misguided direction of electricity and energy policy in the U.S. The panelists outlined a blueprint for a safer and smarter approach to both electricity generation and distribution in the United States—one that has all of our best interests, and the interests of planet Earth, at heart.
Below are presentations from a range of experts at a conference entitled The High Road to a True Smart Grid, held at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on 28 January 2014.
The program cut through misunderstandings about the value of the ‘smart meters’ being rolled out across the country, and the misguided direction of electricity and energy policy in the U.S. The panelists outlined a blueprint for a safer and smarter approach to both electricity generation and distribution in the United States—one that has all of our best interests, and the interests of planet Earth, at heart.
The conference featured an integrated interdisciplinary panel including Timothy Schoechle, PhD, author of the white paper “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid” published by the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy (NISLAPP).
Others included engineer and physician Karl Maret, MD, Eng., expert in industrial and military applications of electromagnetic fields and President of Dove Health Alliance; Camilla Rees, of the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy and ElectromagneticHealth.org; Duncan Campbell, Esq.,new energy visionary and advisor to clean tech companies, and Radio Host at Living Dialogues in Boulder, CO; and James S. Turner, Esq., Partner of Swankin Turner, Chairman of Citizens for Health, and Chairman of the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy.
1. Timothy Schoechle, Ph.D.
Timothy Schoechle, Ph.D. is author of the landmark white paper, “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid”, published by the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy in Washington, D.C. This white paper critiques the present approach to the smart grid and describes what a truly smart electricity grid would look like, one that is capable of integrating “distributed” power generation from renewable and sustainable energy sources without the privacy, security, cost, reliability, radiation, or potential public health impacts of the present approach. Dr. Schoechle has been engaged in engineering development of electric utility gateways and energy management systems for over 25 years. He is an expert on the international standards system and serves as secretariat of ISO/IEC SC32 Data Management and Interchange, and Secretary of ISO/IEC SC25 Working Group 1, the international standards committee for Home Electronic Systems. Dr. Schoechle is a founder of BI Incorporated, pioneer developer of RFID technology, and former faculty member of the University of Colorado College of Engineering and Applied Science. He holds an M.S. in telecommunications engineering and a Ph.D. in communications policy from the University of Colorado.
2. Karl Maret, M.D., Eng.
Dr. Karl Maret is an engineer, physician, former researcher in the Canadian Armed Forces and expert in electromagnetic fields. He is President of Dove Health Alliance in Aptos, CA and Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy in Washington, D.C.. Dr. Maret combines deep expertise in the behavior of electromagnetic fields, electric grid technologies and the potential biological and health effects from the radiation emitted by wireless devices and smart meters.
3. Camilla Rees, MBA
[AUDIO ONLY] Camilla Rees, MBA describes resistance to fully embracing renewable technologies in the U.S. at this point is due to politics and will, not technology, saying we can solve the current privacy, health and security concerns about the present approaches to the electricity grid with already existing and recently developed technology. The technology choices we make, she says, will determine whether electricity is expensive or inexpensive for us; how reliable, secure and safe the grid is; whether the U.S. can achieve energy independence from foreign oil; whether U.S. industries will be able to financially compete in international markets, and sell their goods, supporting jobs domestically; it will impact the degree of privacy we retain about our lives—in our own homes; whether we can address climate change caused by fossil fuels; and, importantly, whether we can shape our society with life-affirming, citizen-empowering and democratic values, where intelligence and innovation and creativity are thriving at the periphery, not stifled at the center. Spending on smart meters has been a charade, propping up a failing utility business model, and have nothing at all to do, as has been claimed, with a smart—or a WISE—grid. Email: Camilla@GettingSmarterAbouttheSmartGrid.org
4. Duncan Campbell, Esq.
Duncan Campbell, Esq. presents an overview of the need for society to move back into balance with our ecosystem, including away from a centralized electricity system, tapping into clean, renewable energy abundance as well as democratizing energy. Duncan is a new energy visionary, advisor to clean tech companies, and Boulder, CO’s leading Radio Host. Mr. Campbell makes the distinction in his remarks between the controversial ‘smart meters’, being rolled out today in the name of a ‘smart grid’, and a truly “WISE grid”—one that is 1) ‘wealth-producing’ for people (where ‘consumers’ become ‘prosumers’); 2) comprised of integrated, meta micro grids, that are nature mimicking, spider web connected and shared; 3) secure & sustainable and 4) empowering of people. Email: Duncan@GettingSmarterAbouttheSmartGrid.org
5. James S. Turner, Esq.
Attorney Jim Turner, Esq. of Swankin Turner in Washington, D.C., also Chairman of National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy, publisher of the landmark whitepaper “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid”, discusses how to formulate an activist approach to the problem at hand of dysfunction in the energy and electricity sector. He said we need to move towards “Power From the People”, where power, intelligence and creativity moves from the periphery toward the center, instead of a centralized approach.
6. Panel Discussion
7. Closing remarks: Duncan Campbell, Esq.
Duncan Campbell, Esq. recaps the afternoon program on “The High Road to a True Smart Grid”. The program highlighted: 1) there are $ billions being wasted in the name of the “smart grid”, while the genuine ‘smart’ technical solutions go underfunded; 2) the public has been misled about the technical capabilities of smart meters; 3) the utility industry is desperately pushing back against rooftop solar and net metering, where customers could be paid for excess energy generated; 4) how smart meters can be ‘a drone in your home’, with significant violations of privacy; 5) ‘opt outs’ don’t make sense unless everyone opts out, as otherwise utilities have ‘divided and conquered’; 6) communities at the local level need to take control of their energy futures; 7) there are technologies, some very recently developed, that can create a WISE decentralized electricity grid without the privacy, security, reliability, public health, and economic risks of the present approach.
W.I.S.E. Grid:
Wealth-creating for the consumers
Integrated micro-grids
Secure, and sustainable
Economical
