Google Earth Used To Predict Electrical Problems

coondoggie writes "What do you get when you combine images from Google Earth and the brainpower from researchers at Oak Ridge National Labs? Well in this case you get a tool that enables real-time status of the national electric grid that federal state and local agencies can use to coordinate and respond to major problems such as wide-area power outages, natural disasters and other catastrophic events. The Visualizing Energy Resources Dynamically on Earth (VERDE) system, announced this week, mashes together images and stats of everything from real-time status of the electric grid and weather information to power grid behavior modeling and simulation."

Comments

Wha?

[ejdmoo]

How exactly does Google Earth predict *anything* at all?

What it seems is someone wrote software to analyze the electrical grid, and they use the Google Maps API to visualize the geographic data.

Yay.

simple google

[twotailakitsune]

This is what, the 100th idea using Google Maps/Earth? they are just using the Google Maps API. Google is more open with people using Maps without paying some big Usage fee.

What this is really about is the VERDE program. Now if Google was doing a real time status program I would have it sit on my screen all day.

Re:simple google

[Homer's Donuts]

When the lights get dimmer, the voltage is going down.

They watch meters real time, predict load based on averages. This weeks load, time of day, last years load,etc. Oh, and they watch the Weather Channel.

Failure prediction? They know what loads have caused failure before. Believe it or not, higher temps and loads (i squared r) cause the wires to stretch. They fail when they come in contact with earth(tree branches,etc) that causes a huge load swing. At 345,000 volts, wood is a conductor.

So a prediction model is new. That is if someone buys and uses it. I've seen multi-floor knife switches that look like they belong in a Frankenstein movie, and an operating turbine with a swastika on the cover.

So this should be in widespread use by what? 2020? Or about a month after someone in Illinois sells power to someone in New Jersey and puts his generator online even though the system operator tells him not to. And the grid goes down. Again.

So I have a prediction: The utilities will fail to fix what is really wrong, a lack of infrastructure to deliver power, until the grid fails again.

I can also predict who is going to pay for it.

just a question

[silentphate]

If this is such a major development, why is it just now being created? Haven't we had the technology to do something like this for decades?

I am skeptical...

[bogaboga]

You know why? It is because data and images from Google Earth are not that up-to-date. In fact, several [new] roads in my county are not shown on Google Earth and Google Maps! So I am skeptical. Am I alone?

Re:I am skeptical...

[hcdejong]

For this application, I suspect it doesn't need to be. They want to have a general idea of which area an event takes place in. Full accuracy (e.g. the street address of the affected transformer) is only needed at lower level, and they should have mechanisms in place for that already.

Re:too late

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

The LHC goes online in just under a day; Google Earth is going to be obsolete

Google Earth is an interactive map & the LHC is a particle accelerator. Frankly, I don't see wtf one has to do with the other (or how one could obsolete the other)...

The real news

[hcdejong]

is that this is news at all:

Major power outages in the United States over the past decade have a recurring theme - the lack of wide-area situational understanding was a key factor that contributed to blackouts.

(emphasis mine)

How can you expect to manage something as complex as a continental power grid without having the data you need? It's not like this capability has only recently become available.