Lauren Lamonica

After years of study, I finally finished my MBA in May 2010. Each SF State MBA candidate is required to take the class called “Culminating Experience,” which is a series of case studies, discussion, and group projects. The class was upbeat and interesting, taught by Professor Sanjay Jain. Because San Francisco State University College of Business is very focused on sustainable energy, all group projects involved clean tech in some way. My group was responsible for analyzing wind turbine producer, Vestas, and for making recommendations.

One recommendation our group made for Vestas was this online household SCADA tool, which I mocked up. (SCADA stands for “supervisory control and data acquisition”.) The online tool is designed to provide a window into your household wind usage, through your energy provider’s extranet, which you might use for paying bills.

A few of the problems this tool aims to fix are as follows:

Problem #1 - because alternative energy sources like wind energy are managed and sourced by larger energy providers like Pacific Gas & Electric, there is often no end-user (in this case, household) connection to the alternative energy source. This does the opposite of empowering the user to make smart energy consumption choices.

Solution #1 - by providing a portal into household wind energy usage, beyond overall household energy usage, we are giving the end-user of energy transparency and control over their wind usage, and providing them with real cost savings.

Problem #2 - it’s not always windy when we need wind power, and it’s often windy when we don’t. AND, wind is difficult and expensive to store. So, off-peak wind usage is key to the success of wind power.

Solution #2 - this online tool uses your phone and the web to monitor and communicate about your energy usage, and alert you (the end-user; the household) when you’re using too much or too little energy. I threw in images of automated household appliances, like the prototypes shown at CES 2010 by Touch Revolution, to illustrate how we can automate household appliances, running a load of laundry or defrosting dinner during off-peak hours from the web or our phone.