Posts Tagged ‘regulations’
Federal Study of Power Grid Might Disrupt The Nation’s Clocks
Once they’re programmed, electrically powered clocks tell time based on the rate of the electric current that feeds them, as an explains. Electrical utilities keep the current’s frequency stable in part to keep clocks precise, the AP says. But utilities could save energy and money by allowing for greater frequency variation, so the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering allowing the change.
Joe McClelland, head of electric reliability for FERC, wondered whether anyone really uses the grid to tell time.
“Let’s see if anyone complains if we eliminate it,” he said.
Renewable energy is one primary reason FERC cares about frequency variation. Power sources like wind and solar energy will ramp up and drop off with great variability, inducing spikes and valleys in the energy flowing through the nation’s electrical grid. Adjusting for those differences is expensive, and can be wasteful, according to FERC. Forgetting about it would just be easier — unless all the nation’s clocks are suddenly off.
With a more variable current, wall clocks and appliance clocks, like the one that’s programmed to brew your coffee every morning, will become less accurate every second, a phenomenon that can get much worse over time. One trade group that has studied the potential effects says East Coast clocks could run 20 minutes fast over a year, and timepieces on the West Coast clocks would be off by about 8 minutes.
Officials from FERC said they are tentatively planning to test a more variable frequency in mid-July, AP said.
It’s a good thing we have atomic clocks to keep us all on track.
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FCC Broadband Plan Promises High-Speed Internet For 100 Million More Americans By 2015
The FCC's plan involves the expansion of both home broadband capacity, but also pays special attention to ensuring that hospitals, libraries, and schools, where most Americans currently use broadband Internet services, get upgraded as well. Ultimately, the FCC hopes to provide 50 megabits per second of upload speed, and 100 megabits of download speed, to another third of the US population over the next decade. Additionally, the FCC wants 500 megahertz of wireless spectrum, currently operated by TV stations, rededicated to servicing mobile devices.
Estimates place the cost of the plan at between $15.5 and $25 billion, but FCC claims that the majority of that money will come from altering the Universal Service Fund, a program to subsidize rural phone service paid for by telecomm companies, from paying for telephones to paying for broadband. Additional funds will come from the auction of wireless spectrum for mobile device use. And if that doesn't cover the bill, the FCC has plans to ask Congress for a one-time, $9 billion boost.
The FCC, the telecommunications industry, and Congress all agree that the expansion of broadband is key to ensuring that America remains competitive in the world. The integration of TV and the Internet, the digitizing of medical records, and an increased use of cloud computing all threaten to tax America's currently limited broadband infrastructure. Despite having more broadband users than anywhere else in the world, the US only ranks 19th in percentage use, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, behind economic competitors like South Korea, Germany, and Great Britain.
Starting at the end of the month, Congress will begin holding hearings on the plan. However, with a lawsuit between the FCC and Comcast over the FCC's ability to regulate the Internet still undecided, the climate change bill poised to distract the Commerce Committee members tasked with FCC oversight, and an election in November that could reverse party control in Congress, it may be some time before the FCC can begin implementing the plan in full.
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