Turkey prepares to hand $5bn to US biz for intelligent electricity Turkey will spend $5bn over the next two years creating a smart grid to cope with increased energy consumption, and buying plenty of American kit with which to do it. The US consulate in Istanbul put out the figure, Bloomberg notes, as it promotes a two-day conference on the subject. The conference itself is sponsored by the …
"The latter is such a problem that a company like Awesense is now offering to trace thefts for free, in exchange for a cut of the saved revenue."
That's not free, then. Is it?
Additionally, that particular business model means they are *dependant* on electricity being stolen in order to make money. Hardly a good incentive to fix the theft problem. More of an incentive to 'invent' a few thieves (paid with cash back-handers) of their own.
Is it me?
No, it isn't just you, but I would suspect that we are not being given the entire story. It is likely that this is an initial discount so that Awesense can get in the door without any initial cost to their customers. They should then be able to make the case that the rest of their services are well worth their costs, assuming they are successful.
Of course, I could be wrong and someone has just been fed a delicious recipe for monetary malfeasance.
Is this the same smart grid that the DHS can't keep secure from 'computer' malware? (link). Besides which the average efficiencies in a power grid are about forty percent, the rest gets converted into waste heat. The grid also has to be generating at full capacity all the time, even when the end user isn't using any.
"The grid also has to be generating at full capacity all the time, even when the end user isn't using any."
No it doesn't, you just need to have sufficient planning and flexibility to bring power on to match demand, which at the aggregate level is fairly predictable. The bit that runs all the time is baseload, and is (or should be) your cheapest generating assets in marginal cost terms (so nuclear if you've got any). There is the need for some over-provision that runs beyond demand all of the time, because we don't yet have any instant response generating plant, but that's very different to full capacity all of the time.
The smartgrid idea is wildly overblown for its supposed potential, but there is a need for more control as grids build in more adventitious generation (read renewables) that runs when it feels like it, or supplementary sources that may have more or less grid control (eg municipal waste incinerators, spare industrial plant). For $5bn I think the Turks have been sold a pup if this is just about grid management, but don't overlook the possibility that this is 5 cents for smart grid and theft tracking, plus $4,999,999,999.95 for a couple of big gas turbine power stations with the contract heading GE's way.
Is it that complicate? If you don't have any thieves then Awesense will spend lots of their money trying to find them and then not charge you a penny - hence they will do the work for free. Call it No Win No Fee if you like - its exactly the same model.
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