[GTALUG] mysterious restarts

[Michael Galea]

On 06/26/16 10:39, Russell Reiter wrote:
>
> On Jun 25, 2016 2:55 PM, "Michael Galea via talk" <talk at gtalug.org
> <mailto:talk at gtalug.org>> wrote:
>  >
>  > The truth is quite mundane.  The security situation is no better or
> no worse than any other application.
>  >
>
> Hey in cybersecurity, one person's mundane truth is another's selections
> of statistics. It all depends on your perspective regarding the threat.
>
>  > I ran a microgrid in in the basement of the Cooper Coo Family center
> for 6 months last year. It was debian with an outgoing connection
> firewall.  The microgrid made an openvpn connection to our central
> site.   It is invisible.  Even then, all the internal applications are
> passworded. We also use Strongswan VPNs to connect to remote telemetry
> Nets in the cloud.  Nothing new here, nothing sexy.
>
> Thats ok, I'm not new and sexy either; still in the diesel generator
> backup age.
>
> I wasn't particularly commenting on the operational state of things.
>
> I lived through both big east coast blackouts. These are my impressions.
>
> We call it the grid. It's modular, assignable, interruptable and
> defendable. Other than dropping magnesium strips on the high tension
> feed, it's robust.
>
> It's the nature of its inherent vulnerabilities, which led to the
> developing of microgrid failover solutions. Mostly for hospitals and
> military and other institutional settings.
>
> With all the current advances in quantum measurement, I just thought it
> would be interesting if the grid's heuristics could be more automated in
> order to repel unsigned loads and avoid blackout conditions.
>
> Notwithstanding any future microgrid sharing, failover or other, which
> may come into play in communities in the future.
>
> Here's a neat phone grid tap for failover. Keep your phone charged
> during a blackout.
>
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cUxx-4bUo4Q
>
> It is possible that in the future your air conditioner may have to send
> a bitcion fraction or switch to a micro grid reserve in order to work
> outside your mains subscription time.
>

Yes, what you're speaking of is called transactional energy. The idea is 
that if you want to run some load, you may be able to get a better rate 
from the the person down the street.  Alternatively, you may gay a 
better rate for your own energy then the utility is willing to pay. So 
you will find them, bid for a contract with them and pay for it through 
a blockchain transaction.

The utility will take a small cut, for putting the two of you together 
supplying the wires between you, and verify the transfer.  After all, if 
you move enough power between yourselves you will exceed the thermal 
limit of you overhead lines.  The utility would be continuously modeling 
the effects of various disparate power flows on the grid and allowing 
them when safe to do so.

Now, I have to say, if you have ANY experience with electric utilities I 
would imagine you are positively laughing by now. When one utility CEO 
was recently asked how they slept at night they replied "Just like a 
baby, I sleep for two hours and then I cry until morning".

-- 
Michael Galea