Attention to detail is a sign that one would make a good engineer. It is also a good trait to have when doing anything that will be facing a massive crowd, such as anything having to do with the media. The reason I say this is because I received an email from my alma mater’s alumni association providing me with my one-year membership. Does anybody see what’s wrong with this picture given that I graduated a little bit less than one month ago?
This was one week ago. They have since corrected it to say “Class of 2009.”
Unfortunately, things got so hectic that I have been unable to update my blog in a long time. The good news is that I still have a pulse (hence the title).
Full disclosure: This is an informal exploration I personally took on. There are many factors I may not have taken into account and bits of data I do not have access to.
As I said last week, I would like to take an informal look at the effectiveness of Earth Hour. I began by writing a VI that would log some real-time information from the ERCOT* web site. This VI would fetch the page from the site every minute, parse it to find the relevant bits, and then write the information to a file. A picture of the VI is below:
Of course, the most interesting bit is the system demand. That is, how much power is being consumed at any given time? I graphed that below:
For those interested in other bits of data (frequency, total generation, amount of power generated by wind, etc.) can download the spreadsheet here: Results.xls
Since ERCOT covers 75% of Texas, I also found the 28 most-populous counties, which contains 75% of the population (2000 census) and found the temperatures on the hour before, the hour during, and hour after Earth Hour using NOAA’s** web site. On average, there was about a 6-degree drop in temperature from 7:50 until 9:50.
Why is there a downward trend in your graph? Is Earth Hour a success? The downward trend could be part of an normal load profile, which is the trend in power consumption for most days. Until there are other sets of data to compare the above graph to, it is too early to tell.
What do you think? From what I’ve heard, most of the load on the electricity grid consists of motors (rotating machines). They are everywhere (refrigerators, ceiling fans, air conditioning units, elevators, etc.). Turning off lights may not make too big of an impact.
*ERCOT – Electric Reliability Council Of Texas. It covers 75% of Texas in terms of area and 85% in terms of load.
On Saturday, March 28th at 8:30 PM (local time zone), many will be participating in Earth Hour by turning off unnecessary loads for one hour to raise awareness for the environment. This sounds great in concept, but many people, including myself, are skeptical about how effective it is. For me, I wonder why not switch unnecessary loads off all the time? After all, there are financial incentives for doing so (as demonstrated by my dinky $ 15.60 electricity bill for 131 KWh of electricity last month).
With my newfound knowledge in power systems, I have several questions:
Will system demand drop and stay down during Earth Hour, proving its effectiveness?
Will generation correspondingly drop and stay down during Earth Hour, proving its effectiveness?
Will the spike of loads coming back online after Earth Hour compromise system stability?
To address these questions, I wrote a LabVIEW VI that will pull real-time information from the ERCOT web site (found here: http://mospublic.ercot.com/ercot/jsp/frequency_control.jsp) and log them to a spreadsheet. I intend to log data on Saturday, March 28 from 8:20 PM to 9:40 PM, as well as Saturday, April 4 at the same time range. I personally wish the participants the best of luck (i.e. answers to #1 and #2 are both “yes”) and that nothing bad will happen (i.e. answer to #3 is “no”). A good indication to system stability on the real-time information page is the frequency. If it were to drop below a certain point, “load shedding,” more commonly known as “rolling blackouts,” could occur.
While I am here, here are some things I do to save electricity:
Replace the light bulbs with CFLs. Even then, turn off lights when they’re not in use.
Air conditioning: @Home = 78F / Away = 82 F
Keep the ceiling fan on
Heating: @Home = 68F / Away = 62F
Turn off everything when going away for more than one day (e.g. it’s networking gear)
This morning, I woke up to a good friend’s Facebook status indicating that she was a victim of a hit-and-run and her neck hurts. One of her “friends” left a comment offering to have sex with her (comment was deleted in the screenshot below).
Key: Green = Me; Yellow = Friend; Red = Foe
In an attempt to stand up for my friend, I told that guy to think before he types because several little birds tell me that copulation is a physically-stressing activity, and those types of activities are the last thing an injured person would want (for risk of worsening the injury). Anyways, he replied some racially-charged order for Chinese food:
Kung pao delight
Fried rice
Egg drop soup
No egg roll
Fortune cookie that says “go **** yourself”
It took about five minutes of anger before my logic kicked in. My logic says that he wants a fortune cookie with an insult directed towards him. Ai-ya! What did I say about thinking and typing?! In any case, I used to think that the phrase “think before you type” applies to issuing commands to computers, but I would like to share this lesson: It applies to real life as well.
To my friend: I hope you feel better. Let me know if there’s something I can do for you. I got your back.
For those who read this, please rate my English skills by leaving a comment.
Today was my first day in a laboratory session of the Power Systems Apparatus & Lab. It consists of only three people (including myself): Two men and one woman. We took turns doing all the procedures, and we were quite a team!
Eventually, a scene formed in which it was the gal’s turn to energize the circuit. As she turned up the voltage, the two of us guys acted as if we were at a frat party. The difference was that instead of chanting, “Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!” we chanted, “Go! Go! Go! Go!” egging her on to keep increasing the voltage. Like good engineers, though, we stopped as soon as she reached the correct voltage as dictated in the instructions.
Don’t deny it, folks. If you have done any decent web surfing recently, I’m sure you all have seen something advertising quick weight loss solutions. It looks something like this:
So the rule is “Obey?” Now I’m confused, because the definition of “obey” is “to conform to or comply with” (reference). Somebody call the grammar police — we have an incident of vagueness here!
Just so you know, they’re scams (reference: Consumerist.com). Let’s play a game of “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” Wait… is it really a scam? It really works, and I have my before/after pics to prove it:
Before
After
Oh, wait… that’s the Photoshop diet. My apologies. But still, if that’s not enough express weight shedding for you, you could try the Knight Bus diet, brought to you by Harry Potter:
Call me a cynic, but I’ve seen too many of these fad diets. The bus widening up is no accident and is reflective of what will happen to most people: They will regress and will be seeking desperate measures like these again.
I’m no fan of quick fixes, for I have yet to be convinced that I won’t have to come back and fix it again. I would rather take the sting of a fix that will last me a longer period of time. Finally, for those of you who happen to have a stocky build, just continue to be well (i.e. eat healthy foods, exercise — even if it’s taking the stairs or walking a bit more, etc.).
My friends and I ended the year of 2008 with a blast as we did the traditional shooting off of rockets. I managed to take some pretty spectacular pictures, but that came at the cost of having to stand about 1m away from the launchpad.
Next time, I’ll be equipped with a telephoto lens.
My break was cut short as I headed to San Antonio for an interview with CPS Energy. There, I was given a chance to demonstrate the foundations I’ve established in taking the classes last semester and my genuine interest in the power industry. I met a bunch of different personalities, ranging from disciplined and structured to a laugh a minute. While it is likely I will be working at a classical power generation plant, I still support the development of renewable energy.
After the interview, I headed to Austin to help with the Edison Lecture Series. It was a doorbusting success! The topic was “Improving the World, One Engineer At A Time.” Next year’s topic: Innovation. For more information, visit www.edisonlectureseries.org My parents love me so much that they wanted me back, even if it was for five days. With gas prices at a reasonable level, I obliged.
Well, I’m back in Austin now, with a new bike and two locks. I’ll try to not get this one stolen… I promise.
Here’s a thought: We all know the song “Santa’s Comin’ To Town.” Suppose you make it to the “good” list. What happens if you were “naughty” between the time he leaves The North Pole and arrives at your place?
This semester was a brand-new start for me. For starters, I started living by myself in a one-bed, one-bath apartment. Although it is pretty quiet, I miss my friends that I met in the dorms. Secondly, I am adapting to the brand-new field I jumped into: Power. It was a leap of faith for me that I started learning this completely new field, but little did I know that it would be a key to job stability. As for my grades, they’re nothing to brag about. I received a C in History, but I still put up a good, although frustrating, fight. This was particularly frustrating because I did all the reading and my study buddies thought I was very well-rehearsed on the topics.
During the Power Systems Engineering final, someone stole my bike. Trust me… things got really awkward when the professor caught a glance of me talking to the cop.
Thus far, I’ve spent the semester working on my family’s computers, meeting up with friends, and simply recharging myself to capacity for next semester.
In the midst of everybody losing their composure, I am, once again, perfectly calm. After I finish this entry, I’m writing my paper on wind power (it blows… har har har) and continuing with my studying.
History?!
During the semester, I have been doing all my reading and I can recall a lot of information. Yet, I have been getting Cs on my all-essay tests. During the tests, I write practically nonstop. To gain a better understanding of the situation, I visited the TA on Friday. Unfortunately, that was counterproductive as I left more ticked off because they appear to just want regurtitation of information and little sense of organization. I ran into one of my colleagues while checking out the synchrophasor stuff Professor Mack Grady just finished setting up, and he echoes my sentiment.
My ability to maintain my composure seemed incredible at the time, but as soon as the final is over, I’m selling those books and ensuring those blue books are taken care of like company top trade secrets.
Funny Pics
Also on Friday, I spent the evening with some friends at a barbecue. On the way back, I noticed that a storefront has this painted: “If it’s in stock, we’ve got it!” My car trip today involved taking a picture of this:
My challenge to you: Devise something to contradict this statement. Now for something not so obvious:
I found the typo on the receipt after I went to the Asian food mart to get this sauce. I shall refrain from making jokes here…
