Slashdot Mirror
Japan Looks To Distributed Control Theory To Manage Energy Market Deregulation
Hallie Siegel writes: Japan's power industry is currently centralized, but it aims to deregulate by around 2020. Coupled with this major structural market change, the expansion of thermal, nuclear and renewable power generation will place additional demands on the management of the country's energy market. Researchers from the Namerikawa lab at Keio University are working with control engineers, power engineers and economists to designing mechanical and control algorithms that can manage this large-scale problem.
Replace the regulations with a functional equivalent. Don't just magically figure that the free market will figure it out. I hope it works.
Deregulation already worked so well for their housing market back in the 90's.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
You don't see the bigger picture here. There are certain segments of market that NEED to be regulated. 2008 finance crisis was because of deregulation's in finance market. 90% of products do not need to be regulated, but energy,finance etc. are not one of them.
What a brilliant idea, especially in the wake of a nuclear power accident!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Coupled with this major structural market change, the expansion of thermal, nuclear and renewable power generation will place additional demands on the management of the country's energy market.
I don't want to dispute the summary, but I see nuclear listed there as an expanding sector.
I was under the impression that post Fukushima, Japan has committed to shrinking its nuclear sector?
Actually, this is not so much "Deregulation" as "Reregulation".
A new National Grid under Central control, with Free-er Market solutions at the Generation level.
Of course, something corrupt like CALISO may occur, but there is always _some_ corruption.
I'd be impressed if they can figure out how to link the east side of the country (50 Hz) with the west (wired later at 60 Hz).
Is this how skynet starts?
Can we just forget the politics of energy deregulation for a moment?
Managing an energy network without a system operator is a revolutionary concept, and theoretically very interesting.
Currently networks have operators who monitor the flow of energy, coordinate outages, conduct system planning and procure operating reserves to ensure network stability. As I understand the Japanese proposal they intend to replace this all with a decentralised decision making system, like TCP/IP achieves packet routing without any one actor having complete system knowledge.
This is a very bold proposal- particularly for a field so vital to the national interest and so conservative. Best of luck to them.
I feel sad when I see that still we've people blaming deregulation for 2008 crisis
Since unregulated derivatives markets were to blame for the collapse, no it's not sad. What is sad is ass-holes like you who don't understand that unregulated markets do not operate in their own best interests.
Regulation is required for free markets. And example of a free market gone haywire due to lax or no regulation was the housing market. And without the FDA, you'd feel perfectly safe getting your prescriptions from Joe's Medical Stuff and Bait Store, right? Or maybe you wish to turn safety entirely over to the airlines so that an acceptable level of crashes that can be insured against would work for you. Your car company would never think to cut corners and get you killed dead because they could save on not installing proper safety equipment in their vehicles. Your bank account need not be insured by the FDIC because you mistakenly stuck your money in a bank whose owners absconded with your loot. The food you eat need not be inspected regularly to keep your death from being the result of bad processing. The guard rails on your way to work don't need any standard over keeping you from your freedom to plow straight down a ravine into that swiftly flowing river. The next hurricane won't bother you because you'll be safe in your house which didn't need to conform to hurricane building standards, also see earthquakes.
Your grandmother can come and live with you because of the nursing home fire which was caused because the owners didn't need to conform to fire protection standards. And, by the way, it wiped out the money she kept in her room which was destined for you in her will but which she didn't trust a bank to keep and hence kept it in large denomination bills which, tragically, met their end in the fire.
Need I continue?
They should just switch to high voltage DC for power transmission and distribution. With DC, you can put solar power directly into the distribution grid without conversion inefficiencies and phase synchronization issues. Not only is solid state DC voltage conversion more power efficient than passive transformers, you do not run into nasty polarity and phase issues, which can be huge infrastructure liabilities. DC circuits have much simpler and effective polarity protection. You can convert into legacy AC at the home, but a surprising number of devices already support DC between 110V and 240V: high efficiency motors that convert AC to DC, then DC to 3 phase AC, any high efficiency power supply, such as in a computer, LED TV, power brick, wall wart, cell phone charger, LED lamps, and anything that is essentially a resistor, such as a heater or incandescent bulb.
You can phase this in (unintentional pun) by offering power cycle conversion (50hz/60hz) at the border and grow cheaper DC service from there outward.
Enron and the California deregulation debacle (rolling blackouts anyone?) 'Nuff said concerning deregulation...
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
Regulation helps to keep markets free and open by preventing abuse of the system. Your libertarian lies are worthless here.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Is that deregulation or over-regulation? Seems like they got the natural consequences of their NIMBY policies.
I mean, energy deregulation and the "free market" worked *so* well in California a dozen years ago. (This assumes that slashdotters reading this are old enough to remember that, or are at least willing to read the news stories about the criminals selling the energy....)
mark
And example of a free market gone haywire due to lax or no regulation was the housing market.
Which regulations were lax or missing? From what I saw it was a pretty heavily regulated market even on the banking side.
And without the FDA, you'd feel perfectly safe getting your prescriptions from Joe's Medical Stuff and Bait Store, right?
No I wouldn't. Who said they would be? This is a straw man argument. And possibly a false dichotomy.
Or maybe you wish to turn safety entirely over to the airlines so that an acceptable level of crashes that can be insured against would work for you. Your car company would never think to cut corners and get you killed dead because they could save on not installing proper safety equipment in their vehicles.
I don't think the parent suggested that torts and other forms of liability should be abolished.
And so on. There are multiple ways that problems like these can and have been resolved, and centralized federal regulation isn't the only choice.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
You needn't continue, you should listen.
Government regulations are the opposite of free markets, free means free of government regulations. Free markets do not go haywire due to lack of government regulations, market did go haywire due to government regulations. Housing market, equity market, now bond market and money markets are all haywire and they are all haywire due to government regulations.
Governments regulate interest rates by ensuring that the so called 'reserve banks' (which have no reserves but only debt actually) control interest rates and create fake money, which is what destroys actual free market.
Fake, government regulated fiat and interest rates destroy free market operations and cause them to go haywire, which is what has been happening for over 100 years now, the Great Depression was due to the Feds creating fake money, the 1971 stagflation was government destroying the very principle of reserve and going full fledged retard with money being nothing at all but paper.
The entire USA and most of the rest of Western economy is a rude facade, there is no production behind it and only inflation creating one bubble after another, each new one having to be ever bigger than the previous one to continue the pretence that there is an actual economy, while the reality is that without production there is no economy and without real money there is no production and the real money is outlawed by the government.
The actual people responsible for the 2008, for the late 1990s, for 1970s, for 1930s and all the crap in between are in power, they are dictating the rules, the so called 'professors' propaganda pushers like Krugman are doing what they are trained and paid to do to help the government to stay in power and the useful idiots like the masses who buy into this crap are the ones who eventually pay with destruction of their economies and standards of living.
FDIC shouldn't exist. FDA shouldn't exist. Federal reserve bank shouldn't exist or at the minimum should HAVE RESERVES and should NOT be allowed to print paper money and manipulate interest rates.
Government should not be allowed to meddle with money or with business and specifically with individual rights of people and you are talking about 'free market going haywire'! Ha!
You can't handle the truth.
Enron. The letters/sounds are all there. It's a perfect fit.
Question: Do you buy your electronics from Best Buy (or any other electronics retailer in the US or Canada)? Do you feel they are particularly dangerous?
If the answer is that you do buy electronics in the US or Canada, and that you feel they are safe, congratulations, you believe that regulation is not necessary. UL, CSA, and ETL aren't government agencies. They simply review devices and decide if they meet safety requirements. There is absolutely requirement in the NEC or CEC (the regulations) that require devices have UL/CSA/ETL certification *except* if you'd like to connect them to your local utility (go ahead, have a read, I can wait).
Effectively, you are buying unregulated devices that the free market builds. You buy them with those certifications because you know that means they're safe. Your utility asks they have those certifications because they don't need to see houses burn down. But if you want to build and market a non-certified device, you are free to do so. Just be certain it doesn't plug into standard utility power.
But, regulation is *required*... right? Yet, you just typed your message on an unregulated device, and you didn't even know it, and had no reason to worry. Sucks when *required* changes to *often happens*.
No. That was deregulation combined with businesses illegally colluding together.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No, the bigger picture is that government exists for the sake of government, and is left to its own devices it would take over everything if you let it. This has happened many times throughout history, and the Free Market is the best defense against runaway bureaucracy. Always remember that.
I am starting to wonder about that. The government does not exist to protect us from the Robber Barons(tm), and it would not be an efficient way to protect them from us. I am starting to wonder if the government exists to protect them from each other, or something like that.
What are you saying? One side of those trades TOTALLY operated in their own best interest..they totally ripped off the banks by lying to them.
Then the banks operated in their own best interest by demanding large amounts of money directly from the gov't to save themselves from their own greed.
The sad thing is regular people have been tricked into believing that it was all done in our best interest.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!