Details and free registration are available at http://icics.ubc.ca/comm-workshop/

KEYNOTE SPEAKER ONE

A COMPUTER SCIENTIST LOOKS AT THE ENERGY PROBLEM
Randy H. Katz
Berkeley
850am - 930am

In this talk, we describe LoCal, a research project at Berkeley that applies the lessons of the Internet, for building distributed and robust communications infrastructures, to a radical new architecture for energy generation, distribution and sharing. We introduce the concept of packetized energy, stored and forwarded to where it is locally needed, exploiting technology for more efficient energy storage. Like the Internet, quality is achieved end-to-end via protocols over a best-effort, resilient and scalable infrastructure. Distributed management and storage enables dramatic reductions in peak-to-average energy consumption, influencing infrastructure provisioning and investment, and enabling a virtuous cycle of power-limited design. Our architectural building block, intelligent power switching, permits use of diverse, even non-traditional energy storage. Rather than
replacing the grid, we overlay it, providing independence from existing generation and transmission systems. Our approach is suited to environments where it is desirable to add incremental generation and distribution, where a centralized infrastructure is prohibitively expensive to deploy as in third world or remote regions (e.g., military or humanitarian operations), or where continued operation in the face of natural disasters is highly desirable (e.g., post-Katrina or post-earthquake disruption of the wide-area energy grid). Management of local demand is also important to dynamically reduce load to remain independent of the grid for as long as possible.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER TWO

THE CHALLENGES IN ACHIEVING A SMART GRID: THE BC HYDRO JOURNEY
Ralph Zucker
BC Hydro
930am - 1000am

The world now agrees: smart grids are good for customers, for the economy, and for the environment. Indeed, smart grids are being seen as a critical component of advanced power delivery systems including the rapid integration of a variety of distributed energy resources. BC Hydro has been on this journey for several years. While many challenges have been overcome, many more remain. The complexities of deploying new technologies and achieving effective systems integration, combined with the challenges of managing interdependent business needs and stakeholder expectations, is resulting in one of the most exciting industry transformations of all time. In this session you will learn about the specific challenges that BC Hydro faces on this journey, and the opportunities waiting to be fulfilled.

Following the keynotes will be five regular sessions with a total of 12 presentations from industry collaborators, faculty, and students. There will also be a student poster session during lunch time.
We will provide lunch, and there will be two coffee breaks.