@Wirec 2008

I spent the last couple of days in Wirec 2008. Personally, it is heartwarming to see so many people so enthused about energy all conglomerated under one roof. I went around attending few conferences - most notable was hearing GM speak about Chevy Volt. One of main mantras I heard over and over again was to release ourselves from traditional dependence on oil, plug-in vehicles have to come in as a mainstream commodity replacing cars that drive in gasoline. There is a bunch of statistics to prove that. This poses tremendous technical and commercial challenges in interfacing the cars with the grid. For the utility to treat the car as another appliance will not be a trivial matter. But this is indeed fascinating. Imagine automobiles becoming like your washing machine. Of course, unlike washing machine a car is mobile. This means that you will need easy availability of plug in to the grid from any meaningful place. Also, important will be how fast it can charge up. So, coming back to the grid - there will be a need for a new infrastructure. A new platform. A new marketplace. People should be able to come in and go out. How do we allow people to enter this marketplace? How do we gear the technology to support that? How do we make money? Do we create technical restrictions like - you have to have a certain kind of interface to plug in Texas as opposed to New York - or say other kinds of restrictions - electric Mercs or BMWs allowed only. These issues will take a lot of effort and lot of ink to resolve. Regardless, these are fascinating times. One message I take away - the big challenges are known, everyone agrees that something has to be done about it, and that we don't have a lot of time. I will keep probing these fascinating topics. I am excited that these days energy and grid are becoming sexy topics in cocktail parties again!