Paying Attention to the Man behind the Curtain

Smart energy systems that leverage pervasive computing could add to supervisory control operators' workload, as they'll have to predict possible power plant load and production changes caused by environmental and plant events, as well as dynamic system adaptation in response to consumer behaviors.

Abstract

In the push to develop smart energy systems, designers have increasingly focused on systems that measure and predict user behavior to effect optimal energy consumption. While such focus is clearly an important component in these systems' success, designers pay substantially less attention to the human on the other side of the energy system loop—the supervisors of power-generation processes. Pervasive computing will likely add to an already complex array of data streams and introduce a new layer of supervisory complexity when dynamically adapting energy management.