tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8985375119695599206.post8989469456030355267..comments2008-03-29T06:46:03.045-05:00Billy Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10388845919168009946noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8985375119695599206.post-39339208092132906752008-03-29T06:46:00.000-05:002008-03-29T06:46:00.000-05:00We are certainly open to TVA working with us to learn how FTTH could be exploited as a solution to their capacity shortage. We have been pleading with them to do so since we first started building broadband in 1988. But trying to tell an organization which is determined to solve all problems with concrete and steel that there is another way, and especially when that organization is afraid of upsetting the likes of AT&T, the opportunities tend to be ignored, but that is exactly what we need to be doing.<BR/><BR/>There is work to be done. While there is a fair amount of experience out there for solving peak demand issues by using a telecommunications medium to go out and turn off water heaters and other loads, I don't believe there is any experience with the idea of totally controlling loads. By that I mean using the robust bandwidth of FTTH to install temperature sensors in homes and businesses and advanced controls that would allow a master load management program to actually go out and tell certain loads to run...that would allow the utility to pre-heat or pre-cool homes and businesses when they have the capacity, combined with the weather forecast, so they can more easily coast through the peak temperature times. They could use assets this sort of capability like they use their pumped storage generation capability today to increase load factor through storage of BTU's at millions of homes and businesses instead of just at Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage. They should have been utilizing the opportunity to work with us on this concept over the last twenty years. But, alas, they have spent most of that time trying to keep other cities from replicating our project because they are afraid that some electric rate-payer money might get used to build broadband instead of electric power plant. What they are missing is that broadband IS electric power plant!Billy Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10388845919168009946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8985375119695599206.post-15536152305010268122008-03-28T07:34:00.000-05:002008-03-28T07:34:00.000-05:00Hi Billy,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for this interesting perspective. Actually, we in France are to deploy FTTH massively, starting next year.<BR/>As business dev. at the city of Pau, the largest FTTH in service to date in the country, I'm willing to share experiences on the "green" aspects of ultra-broadband networks. Your insights are pretty useful there, thanks !Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00627821914420499493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8985375119695599206.post-76854339712338922092008-03-27T17:47:00.000-05:002008-03-27T17:47:00.000-05:00Great piece! <BR/><BR/>I wonder if there is any chance that the TVA guys would cut a deal with you to do a demonstration in Glasgow? <BR/><BR/>The idea being for you to put in FTTH & electrical controls in your town and cut a deal between TVA and your community where your folks are rebated their share of the costs of nuclear in the form of lower rates if your households don't contribute to the peak demands that make that necessary. <BR/><BR/>Shouldn't be to hard to set up a fair system (but might be considerably harder to get them to accept it.)<BR/><BR/>A great idea you've go there at any rate.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04577901049540355311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8985375119695599206.post-31017047128584240892008-03-26T14:53:00.000-05:002008-03-26T14:53:00.000-05:00Tremendous article. Informative, technical, and poetic...not an easy task to achieve!<BR/><BR/>Love how this beats the drum for how broadband isn't just about economic development and creating new opportunities to use technology, it's about realizing huge savings in the new efficiencies that using these new technologies can bring.<BR/><BR/>If we invest money in fiber we can realize unbelievable savings in healthcare and energy. <BR/><BR/>We're not going to solve those problems just by cutting benefits and finding alternative energy sources. We need to find ways to make the systems themselves more efficient and to decrease demand for both.<BR/><BR/>And the best way to do that is through not just the deployment of broadband but the actual adoption and use of all the Internet has to offer.<BR/><BR/>www.app-rising.comGeoff Dailyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12584187965217177002noreply@blogger.com