EMAIL INTERVIEW  Rik Drummond & Anto Budiardjo

Rik Drummond, Chair, GridWise™ Architecture Council

GridWise is a DOE initiative

GridWise is a DOE initiative to bring the North America electric grid into the 21^st century.

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Budiardjo:     Please give readers an introduction to GridWise.

Drummond:   GridWise is a DOE initiative to bring the North American electric grid into the 21^st century. The GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC) is tasked with creating a network architecture of devices across the entire grid, from generation to consumption, a system that will enhance reliability and security where we need it most and ensure efficient use of our electric resources.

Budiardjo:    How important is this initiative?

Drummond:  It is estimated that a $450b investment is necessary in the next 10 years to keep up with the demand of electricity in the U.S. You may know that as much as 15% of the electric generation capacity is only required for peak demand times. The rationale is that if we can use information technology to reduce these peaks, then a significant amount of this investment will not be required. It is thus very important to the U.S. economy.

Budiardjo:     What are the challenges of this vision?

Drummond:  Considering the many players involved in the grid particularly on the consumer side of the meter, the main challenge is to get the diverse set of industry players to understand that this is technically possible, and to get some form of consensus of what to do to make this a reality.

Budiardjo:     And that is the purpose of the GridWise Constitution.

Drummond:  That’s right; we intend to define a set of principles that can unite the industry toward this vision, a set of technical as well as business and policy guidelines to help bring the players together. We have been working on the constitution for a few months, conducting interviews with many stakeholders; the next step is to get a broader support and validation of what we have.

Budiardjo:     Thus the Convention.

Drummond:  Yes, in December 6-7, 2005, we will hold a convention to discuss and ratify the constitution.

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Budiardjo:     And fittingly, it’s in Philadelphia.

Drummond:  Yes, we think this is an important subject. We couldn’t think of a better place.

Budiardjo:     Who will attend this convention?

Drummond:  Delegates will be key stakeholders from a cross section of the electric generation, distribution and consumption industries as well as many from the DOE and other government and regulatory agencies.

Budiardjo:      Can anyone attend this convention?

Drummond:  We want to focus on bringing together the players that are interested and have a contribution to make, so we will be inviting people to register their interest to be delegates. Once we have a list of those interested, we will formally invite around 100 to 150 people to the convention.

Budiardjo:     How does a reader communicate their interest?

Drummond:  At the beginning of October a Web site will be created to provide some more information and to register an interest in the event. The site is www.gridwise.com.

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