traditional grid which is more akin to the old telephony architecture where central offices furnished all signals.
It avoids the ac issues of power source synchronization, power factor correction, frequency control, line balancing, and information non-linear load support and articulation. In addition, it is ideal for lower-cost ICT distribution (e.g., PoE, SPoE, FMPS) cabling both in-premise and outside plant (OSP). DC power electronics make it easier and faster to articulate power based on information concurrently supplied by the ICT monitoring and control layers in more highly converged power/data system architectures. System features can include: • Power quality and safety monitoring and protection/maintenance • Power source prioritization and conversion • Load (use) monitoring, analysis, control, and shaping • Storage monitoring, management, and control • Real-time diagnosis,predictive system, and device-level maintenance management
• Collection and integrated use of information about projected supply and demand requirements (e.g., present and future bulk grid conditions, weather forecasts, power arbitrage management). Future developments in intelligent building applications for AI, with higher data bandwidth and power needs in previously unconsidered locations, will undoubtedly reshape on-premise communications and power dis- tribution requirements. These changes will become more pronounced due to the transition from USB and PoE power delivery to SPoE and FMPS. At the same time, data centers are predicting tremendous growth from evolving AI and augmented reality (AR) computing tasks leading to more ICT work and taxing the power grids beyond their current capacity for expansion. A multi-dimensional energy crisis is taking place. The desire to use clean, renewable energy sources is up against the need for energy availability and reliability. Electrical energy is fast becoming a modern currency in the technological world. Bob Metcalfe states “We need an abundant and squanderable supply of electrons from clean generation technologies to continue to move the world forward.” The quest for digitally enabled buildings that can produce enough energy to run themselves (i.e., smart, net zero energy buildings) will likely force an evolution in how buildings are designed, constructed, and oper- ated in the future. Driven by technology, economics, and regulatory policy, the energy transition will "We need an abundant and squanderable supply of electrons from clean generation technologies to continue to move the world forward." Bob Metcalfe Co-inventor of Ethernet
reimagine how energy is produced, transported, stored, and consumed. A more complete solution will come from improving how energy is used and created in buildings. The effects of energy consumption cannot easily be ameliorated by conservation alone. Some fundamentally new conclusions need to be reached. This will require a power system that will: • Grow, shrink, rearrange, and otherwise change dynamically. • Self-organize as a network and reconfigure/respond to user needs while complementing the needs of the existing grid structure. • Avoid the negative non-linear failure dynamic that dominates the current macro power system. Such a flexible architecture in buildings must contain multiple layers of integrated mechanical, electrical, electronic, computer, and communication devices. In a truly end-user-focused solution, the upper layers should provide grid and network converged power and intelligence, while lower layers provide a building environment that optimizes user comfort, energy consumption, safety, and work efficiency. In the most advanced state, the combination should be able to semi-autonomously orchestrate a level of control and work execution normally associated with human intelligence, including the attributes of reasoning, learning, and adaptation. But while information technology has rocketed through the digital age, power generation and distribution technology has been stuck in a 100-year-old paradigm. So, despite the mounting demands of an asynchronous digital electronic world, we find ourselves electrically tethered to a synchronous analog ac infrastructure. As a result, the building and data center industries have suffered wasted energy, reliability, safety, and cost consequences. Fortunately, a rapidly growing number of companies and organizations believe it is time for a change from pure ac power distribution in buildings to hybrid ac-dc and pure dc systems that can be increasingly converged wired and wirelessly with data distribution. A practical distribution of dc power allows efficient use of directly coupled alternate energy sources with highly controllable, energy efficient, plug-and-play
POWER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE An Enernet has a "Grid of Grids" architecture and is a concept in the field of distributed power system networking that envisions a hierarchical or layered structure of interconnected microgrids and traditional grids, where each grid represents a distinct and autonomous system for power generation-storage-use in a resource-sharing environment incorporating semi- autonomous balancing authority (Figure 2). It aims to address issues related to the technical viability and long-term economic sustainability of providing optimized renewable resource integration, resiliency, scalability, flexibility, and efficiency in both public and private power systems. As the need for energy grows much like the need for bandwidth, on-site generation that produces dc power is a better form of electricity to use at the grid’s edge.
Centralized Generation System
Distributed Generation System
FIGURE 2: Comparing a legacy energy distribution architecture with a modern distribution architecture in a resource-sharing environment.
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ICT TODAY
October/November/December 2024
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