Jenga™ Tower Thinking Among The Electricity Chattering Classes
Not the architecture we need. In fact, not architecture at all.
There are many great towers in the world. They are fine examples of excellent architecture, engineering, and craftsmanship.
For some reason, the electricity chattering classes1 and the whiteboard flatlanders persist in assembling shaky scaffolds of specious concepts to foist upon the US utility industry. Some of these ideas have wilted under scrutiny, some have been tried, and some are still sitting on whiteboards. Many elements work poorly, if at all, and some do not even exist (looking at you, DEFRs). Collectively, they form a flimsy tower of rate gimmicks, questionable gizmos, and dubious process/method ideas.
Lots of people say they can use this stuff to “disrupt the grid.” This is common thinking among those whose experience is with smart phone apps, cloud services, and “we’ll fix that in the next release” paradigms.
But yeah. It’s the flimsy tower that actually gets disrupted, time and again.
Hmm. If only there was a way to do rigorous thinking about the grid, a way that provided the means to handle Ultra-Large-Scale complexity; a way that made it easy to evaluate alternatives and understand the implications of changes before committing to large investments; a way to filter out the weak and bad ideas and organize good concepts into a cohesive whole view of a grid future?
Note: JENGA is a Trademark of POKONOBE ASSOCIATES.
And for those who remember:
“Electricity chattering classes” is how I denote the group of opinion writers, energy activists, and tech advocates who are unencumbered with actual power grid experience but who have lots to say about how electricity should be delivered. Magic box thinking is rampant among this group.