this is it i'm signing off

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this is it i'm signing off

(hopefully not actually literally)

This is a quote from a Lana song I love, the greatest. I love all of the softness and the gentleness at the end. The acceptance. The resignation. The finality.

I've wanted to call a blog post this for ages.


I just love the ending of the song. 

I love how it builds up to it. It's so beautiful. It's just... acceptance.

Edge Management

Back to Schneider Electric and smart grids. 

What even is edge management anyway?

This website mentions the "Grid Edge".

"Optimising supply and demand"

As usual I understand nothing in this post. It mentions DERs - yay! I understand those after all. (They are "distributed energy resources" - generation resources on the customer's side of the meter).

It says here that utilities are operating something called a "low voltage (LV) grid". What! What is this thing! And how did I not know that it exists. It says that in this instance utilities must engage with their customers better. It says that they are now "prosumers"; I assume that this means that they are a combination of "producers and consumers."

What is the LV grid?

I googled this and I still can't figure it out. I have asked on a work channel just in case anybody knows.

The answers

Some really helpful colleagues stepped in to help out and to help me to answer the question. 

One answer from Chat GPT included quotes such as: "The low-voltage grid refers to the part of an electrical distribution network that operates at relatively low voltages, typically less than 1,000 volts.

It is the final stage of the electricity distribution system that delivers power to end-users such as residential homes, small businesses, and other low-power consumers." 

It is the final stage of the electricity distribution system. Omg. I love that. Thank you. The wikipedia definition could be : it is "a part of electric power distribution which carries electric energy from distribution transformers to electricity meters of end customers."

They are "operated at a low voltage level, which is typically equal to the mains voltage of electric appliances".

Back to "Optimising supply and demand"

"These changes require that utilities develop new ways to optimise supply and demand at the grid edge while managing the grid's lifecycle".

These changes require that utilities develop new ways to optimise supply and demand at the grid edge while managing the grid's lifecycle.

These changes require that utilities develop new ways to optimise supply and demand at the grid edge while managing the grid's lifecycle.

What does this mean

  • We want to optimise supply and demand
    • We want to this at the edge of the grid, i.e. the LV part of the grid
  • Is that what is meant by the Grid Edge? the LV or "secondary" grid?
  • What does this have to do with "maintaining the grid's lifecycle?"

So what they have here is:

  • They say that they have 
    • demand management solutions 
    • and grid metering solutions
What do I know here? I don't understand anything.

What do their tools help you to do?

Solutions can:
  • Help utilities to better design and operate Low Voltage (LV) Grids
  • Help utilities to enhance meter operations
  • Help utilities with data collection 
  • Help utilities to enhance their data quality and gain system insights
  • And OMG HERE IS THE BIG ONE:
  • increase customer engagement to support usage optimisation and demand management
wow that's so cool because I just wrote about this in a recent blog post omg

I must be onto something here haha wow omg!

Linking it back to software engineering

I am neglecting something that is really important to me; I am failing to link this back to software engineering. 

It's all so great that I'm talking about software. 

But I would like to think about this as a software engineer. As that is what I am.

Somebody has to build all of this stuff? How do you build it? Who decides what to build - the CEO or the CTO or the VP or the Product Manager? How do you know what you can build if you don't have an expert in software engineering who can tell you exactly what you can build - the engineer or engineering manager? How does the engineer know what to build if they are not an expert in renewable energy? What tech stacks do you use? How many teams do you need? How many engineers?

When I Get Sad I Stop Being Sad and then I Look at The Offshore Wind Farms Instead

I watched a video on Tuesday morning about Orsted and the offshore wind farm developments in Grimsby. There was this amazing girl called Bridi who was doing an apprenticeship on maintaining the wind turbines. I thought she was so brave. It's a long way out there and a quite high climb. I thought that she was very brave! I loved her passion and enthusiasm. She was such an inspirational girl. And she was only 24! Here's the video if you want to have a look: 



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