Grid management is currently my business specialisation. I can assure you that maintaining a grid operational is a lot more complex than keeping backup generators at a few key facilities. For example, the smart meters collect data all the time. Even with a power and communication loss, they will continue to collect for a while, storing the data internally. When communication is restored, they will send all their stored data at once. Now multiply that by millions of meters and days of data. The servers are not going to be able to ingest that torrent information. Now, what if the outage was extra long like this one, and the meters ran out of internal storage or charge? How are you going to manage the data gaps?
That’s only meter data. There’s a ton of other systems in play. Very few people realize how delicate and complex power grids are. I can’t speak for Spain, but the US grid is held up by spit, duct tape, brute force and prayers to the old gods. May Cthulhu have mercy on us.
I’m not doubting the complexity. I’m doubting capitalisms ability to properly fund and plan the necessary redundancy of critical infra.
The problem you describe is not the same as mine. That’s an IT/DevOps problem I am extremely familiar with, and planning for spikes in usage is much simpler than battery backup and independent power. Internet services can scale extremely well these days. That’s a solved problem.
The point is that critical infra should be architected to handle this type of scenario.
You are telling me that smart meters, of all things, don’t have API circuit breakers to prevent them from crashing the entire system? Talk about irony.
Grid management is currently my business specialisation. I can assure you that maintaining a grid operational is a lot more complex than keeping backup generators at a few key facilities. For example, the smart meters collect data all the time. Even with a power and communication loss, they will continue to collect for a while, storing the data internally. When communication is restored, they will send all their stored data at once. Now multiply that by millions of meters and days of data. The servers are not going to be able to ingest that torrent information. Now, what if the outage was extra long like this one, and the meters ran out of internal storage or charge? How are you going to manage the data gaps?
That’s only meter data. There’s a ton of other systems in play. Very few people realize how delicate and complex power grids are. I can’t speak for Spain, but the US grid is held up by spit, duct tape, brute force and prayers to the old gods. May Cthulhu have mercy on us.
EDIT: Typos
I’m not doubting the complexity. I’m doubting capitalisms ability to properly fund and plan the necessary redundancy of critical infra.
The problem you describe is not the same as mine. That’s an IT/DevOps problem I am extremely familiar with, and planning for spikes in usage is much simpler than battery backup and independent power. Internet services can scale extremely well these days. That’s a solved problem.
The point is that critical infra should be architected to handle this type of scenario.
You are telling me that smart meters, of all things, don’t have API circuit breakers to prevent them from crashing the entire system? Talk about irony.
Don’t worry. If the transmission fails, the meter will try again, and again, and again, and again…
“what the fuck is exponential backoff” - someone writing software for these meters ten years ago
Did the US run out of chewing gum already???
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