Skip the navigation

Web-to-Pager Program Manages Calif. Energy

Could save users $48 million this summer

By Bob Brewin
June 25, 2001 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - The California energy crisis has led to the growth of power-demand aggregators, which pride themselves on producing "nega-watts" - wholesale reductions in power usage. One of those organizations uses two-way radio pagers and a secure extranet to manage demand reduction on short notice.
Gary Fabrizi, senior vice president of the Ancillary Services Coalition (ASC) in Laguna Nigel, Calif., said his organization has contracted with more than 250 heavy power users to shut off their power when an overload is expected to hit the state's electrical grid.
Fabrizi declined to identify the users but said total power consumption by those customers is about 1.2 megawatts, which is equivalent to the power required by 1.5 million homes.
To ensure that the ASC can quickly notify the user companies that they need to shut down their power, Fabrizi said, he selected a two-way notification system developed by Westlake Software Inc. in Calabasas, Calif. The system provides a point-and-click way to speedily notify hundreds of power users and quickly receive their responses.
Alan Gould, CEO of Westlake, said the ASC can log on to a secure extranet page, click on any number of users and send a short text message (100 characters or fewer) that alerts them of an upcoming power shutdown.
The Web page on the extranet maintains a list of users notified and records their responses as they come in. If power users don't respond to the page, the ASC follows up with a phone call, Gould said.
The software includes the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol address of each pager, so once the ASC clicks to send a message, it appears on the server of a paging company, which then transmits it via satellite or radio tower to the user.
Gould noted that his system is significantly cheaper than the telemetry-based approach recently adopted by Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's Inc. to automatically shut off the lights in 206 of its California grocery stores. "Why install a lot of expensive telemetry hardware when you can just buy an $80 pager?" Gould said.
The ASC's partners stand to reap significant cash benefits from participating in the demand-reduction program, through rebates from the Fresno, Calif.-based Independent Systems Operator (ISO), which manages the state power grid. During the four-month program, Fabrizi said, power users could save $96,000 per month for each megawatt of power they take off-line. The total return to the user companies over the summer could hit $48 million, he said.
Fabrizi said the ISO offers the rebates because taking power off-line has the sameeffect on the power grid as importing extra power.

Read more about Government/Industries in Computerworld's Government/Industries Topic Center.



Additional Resources
Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
WHITE PAPER
Solving application issues over the WAN requires careful consideration. Based on their independent research, Forrester Consulting offers recommendations on how to tackle application performance issues, insufficient bandwidth and the inability to quickly restore users in a disaster.

Read now.

Security KnowledgeVault
WHITE PAPER
Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All
WHITE PAPER
New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Government/Industries White Papers
Eight Considerations for Evaluating Disk-Based Backup Solutions
In the past, the movement from tape- to disk-based backup has been less compelling due to the expense of storing backup data on...
ExaGrid Helps U.S. Federal Government Agencies Reduce Backup Windows and Improve Data Protection
The U.S. Government has been the largest user of tape-based backup systems since the 1970s. Most agencies have begun to deploy disk storage...
Virtualizing Government Infrastructure
All server virtualization solutions are not created equal. The more-with-less agenda for government agencies is tailor-made for server virtualization, which is evolving into...
Overcome Top 7 Admin Challenges of Active Directory
As Active Directory's role in the enterprise has drastically increased, so has the need to secure the data. Gain insight on creating repeatable,...
Insiders Can Ruin Your Company. Take Action.
Did you know that 80 percent of threats to an organization come from the inside? The threat from insiders is often overlooked in...
All Government/Industries White Papers
Government/Industries Webcasts
Virtual Desktop Solutions in the Federal Government
Federal IT managers are on the forefront of realizing the benefits that a secure, easy-to-manage virtual desktop environment can provide. The key is...
Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
Customer Spotlight: How IPC The Hospitalist Company Implemented Oracle on VMware
Have you been looking to hear about customer's experiences with the new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager product? View this webcast to learn...
All Government/Industries Webcasts
Newsletter Sign-Up

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all newsletters | Privacy Policy
IT Jobs