The New World of Utilities


Book Description

After decades of stability, power systems are currently undergoing a rapid transition - demand patterns are evolving, while supply sources are shifting to renewable energies at an accelerated pace. This book, written by an experienced energy professional, combines the various aspects of supply and demand developments to offer a unified perspective. It highlights the key changes that the world of electric utilities and power systems will face in the coming decade, as well as the major challenges that will emerge as a result. Supplemented by a wealth of global and local data, the book describes the major patterns that affect both supply and demand, and provides a quantified analysis of their impacts on power system grids and markets. Lastly, it explores the new technologies that can enable the success of these transformations.




Future of Utilities - Utilities of the Future


Book Description

Future of Utilities - Utilities of the Future: How technological innovations in distributed generation will reshape the electric power sector relates the latest information on the electric power sector its rapid transformation, particularly on the distribution network and customer side. Trends like the rapid rise of self-generation and distributed generation, microgrids, demand response, the dissemination of electric vehicles and zero-net energy buildings that promise to turn many consumers into prosumers are discussed. The book brings together authors from industry and academic backgrounds to present their original, cutting-edge and thought-provoking ideas on the challenges currently faced by electric utilities around the globe, the opportunities they present, and what the future might hold for both traditional players and new entrants to the sector. The book's first part lays out the present scenario, with concepts such as an integrated grid, microgrids, self-generation, customer-centric service, and pricing, while the second part focuses on how innovation, policy, regulation, and pricing models may come together to form a new electrical sector, exploring the reconfiguring of the current institutions, new rates design in light of changes to retail electricity markets and energy efficiency, and the cost and benefits of integration of distributed or intermittent generation, including coupling local renewable energy generation with electric vehicle fleets. The final section projects the future function and role of existing electrical utilities and newcomers to this sector, looking at new pathways for business and pricing models, consumer relations, technology, and innovation. - Contains discussions that help readers understand the underlying causes and drivers of change in the electrical sector, and what these changes mean in financial, operational, and regulatory terms - Provides thought-provoking ideas on the challenges currently faced by electric utilities around the globe, the opportunities they present, and what the future might hold for both traditional players and new entrants to the sector - Helps readers anticipate what developments are likely to define the function and role of the utility of the future




Soft Power


Book Description

Joseph Nye coined the term "soft power" in the late 1980s. It is now used frequently—and often incorrectly—by political leaders, editorial writers, and academics around the world. So what is soft power? Soft power lies in the ability to attract and persuade. Whereas hard power—the ability to coerce—grows out of a country's military or economic might, soft power arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. Hard power remains crucial in a world of states trying to guard their independence and of non-state groups willing to turn to violence. It forms the core of the Bush administration's new national security strategy. But according to Nye, the neo-conservatives who advise the president are making a major miscalculation: They focus too heavily on using America's military power to force other nations to do our will, and they pay too little heed to our soft power. It is soft power that will help prevent terrorists from recruiting supporters from among the moderate majority. And it is soft power that will help us deal with critical global issues that require multilateral cooperation among states. That is why it is so essential that America better understands and applies our soft power. This book is our guide.




The New World Power


Book Description

From the era of the Spanish American war onward, the United States found itself increasingly involved in the affairs of countries beyond North America. The New World Power offers an interpretive framework for understanding U.S. foreign policy during the first two decades of America's emergence as a world power. Robert E. Hannigan describes the aspirations of American leaders, explores the bedrock social views and ideological framework they held in common, and shows how the approach of U.S. policymakers overseas mirrored their attitudes toward domestic progressivism. While the vast bulk of work on U.S. foreign policy has been concerned with the period from World War II to the present, this comprehensive examination of American policy at the turn of the twentieth century is of vital importance to the comprehension of subsequent events. Hannigan relates U.S. foreign policy to domestic society in ways that are new; in particular, he examines how issues of class, race, and gender were combined in the ideology held by policy makers and how this shaped their approaches to foreign affairs. His study reveals a fundamental unity to U.S. activity throughout the period, not only toward the Caribbean and China, regions that have been the traditional focus of historians, but toward the rest of North and South America as well. It also relates these regional activities to American policy toward the British Empire, European great power rivalries, and international institutions, arbitration, and law, culminating in a reinterpretation of U.S. involvement in World War I. Based on exhaustive research in the writings of presidents, secretaries of state, and key diplomats and advisers, The New World Power draws parallels between the methods by which policy makers sought to shape international society and the methods by which many of them hoped to secure the conditions they wanted within the United States. Most important, the book describes how an international search for order constituted the fundamental strategy by which American leaders sought to ensure for the United States a position of what they saw as wealth and greatness in the coming twentieth-century world.




Delivering Water and Power


Book Description

Modernize workflows, create actionable data, reduce costs, and prepare for new challenges. Location is at the core of many utilities' daily and long-term planning, but it's about more than making a map. It's improving the reliability of your water and energy infrastructure by reducing service interruptions. It's using data analysis to make informed operational decisions, both in the office and in the field. It's strengthening your network safety and security while increasing customer satisfaction. With advancements in smart technologies, location intelligence for utilities management is not just for GIS specialists. In Delivering Water and Power: Applying GIS for Utilities, see how public and private utilities around the world have implemented geographic information systems (GIS) to visualize and analyze data for situational awareness, operational efficiency, and asset management. In this collection of case studies and "how to" guidance, learn about how GIS was used to: * Protect customers in Denver through an innovative lead reduction program * Streamline asset inspections in the UK * Improve emergency response efforts in Puerto Rico * Increase solar energy potential and adoption in Dubai Through web apps, online maps, dashboards, and other GIS solutions, utility professionals develop a deeper understanding of network maintenance and performance within a real-world context, increasing operational flexibility, creating a safer environment for workers, and raising customer satisfaction. Discover how GIS and location intelligence modernize utility infrastructure and operations for improved service delivery and management with Delivering Water and Power: Applying GIS for Utilities.




Revolutionary Power


Book Description

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, completely upending the energy grid of the small island. The nearly year-long power outage that followed vividly shows how the new climate reality intersects with race and access to energy. The island is home to brown and black US citizens who lack the political power of those living in the continental US. As the world continues to warm and storms like Maria become more commonplace, it is critical that we rethink our current energy system to enable reliable, locally produced, and locally controlled energy without replicating the current structures of power and control. In Revolutionary Power, Shalanda Baker arms those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity. She argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must engage in the creation of the new energy system in order to upend the unequal power dynamics of the current system. Revolutionary Power is a playbook for the energy transformation complete with a step-by-step analysis of the key energy policy areas that are ripe for intervention. Baker tells the stories of those who have been left behind in our current system and those who are working to be architects of a more just system. She draws from her experience as an energy-justice advocate, a lawyer, and a queer woman of color to inspire activists working to build our new energy system. Climate change will force us to rethink the way we generate and distribute energy and regulate the system. But how much are we willing to change the system? This unique moment in history provides an unprecedented opening for a deeper transformation of the energy system, and thus, an opportunity to transform society. Revolutionary Power shows us how.




The New World


Book Description




The New World


Book Description




The New Global Ecosystem in Advanced Computing


Book Description

Computing and information and communications technology (ICT) has dramatically changed how we work and live, has had profound effects on nearly every sector of society, has transformed whole industries, and is a key component of U.S. global leadership. A fundamental driver of advances in computing and ICT has been the fact that the single-processor performance has, until recently, been steadily and dramatically increasing year over years, based on a combination of architectural techniques, semiconductor advances, and software improvements. Users, developers, and innovators were able to depend on those increases, translating that performance into numerous technological innovations and creating successive generations of ever more rich and diverse products, software services, and applications that had profound effects across all sectors of society. However, we can no longer depend on those extraordinary advances in single-processor performance continuing. This slowdown in the growth of single-processor computing performance has its roots in fundamental physics and engineering constraints-multiple technological barriers have converged to pose deep research challenges, and the consequences of this shift are deep and profound for computing and for the sectors of the economy that depend on and assume, implicitly or explicitly, ever-increasing performance. From a technology standpoint, these challenges have led to heterogeneous multicore chips and a shift to alternate innovation axes that include, but are not limited to, improving chip performance, mobile devices, and cloud services. As these technical shifts reshape the computing industry, with global consequences, the United States must be prepared to exploit new opportunities and to deal with technical challenges. The New Global Ecosystem in Advanced Computing: Implications for U.S. Competitiveness and National Security outlines the technical challenges, describe the global research landscape, and explore implications for competition and national security.




Smart Water Utilities


Book Description

Today there is increasing pressure on the water infrastructure and although unsustainable water extraction and wastewater handling can continue for a while, at some point water needs to be managed in a way that is sustainable in the long-term. We need to handle water utilities “smarter”. New and effective tools and technologies are becoming available at an affordable cost and these technologies are steadily changing water infrastructure options. The quality and robustness of sensors are increasing rapidly and their reliability makes the automatic handling of critical processes viable. Online and real-time control means safer and more effective operation. The combination of better sensors and new water treatment technologies is a strong enabler for decentralised and diversified water treatment. Plants can be run with a minimum of personnel attendance. In the future, thousands of sensors in the water utility cycle will handle all the complexity in an effective way. Smart Water Utilities: Complexity Made Simple provides a framework for Smart Water Utilities based on an M-A-D (Measurement-Analysis-Decision). This enables the organisation and implementation of “Smart” in a water utility by providing an overview of supporting technologies and methods. The book presents an introduction to methods and tools, providing a perspective of what can and could be achieved. It provides a toolbox for all water challenges and is essential reading for the Water Utility Manager, Engineer and Director and for Consultants, Designers and Researchers.