Finding Fiber in Columbia, MO, providing data access for 400 megawatt of power, Mike Manos kicks the dirt again

March 24, 2010 Dave Ohara

I've blogged about the 400 megawatt of power in Columbia, Missouri, and an obvious next question is what is the fiber like. Last year's information was "there isn't enough fiber."

Research the site and the common knowledge is three providers - AT&T, Level3, and CenturyLink/Lightcore. That's not enough. But look at where the data comes from, the salesperson who is ready to take the order.

Mike Manos wrote an entertaining post on kicking the dirt.

Mike Manos discusses data center site selection, you need to “kick the dirt” to find what is real

At Gartner’s Data Center Conference, Mike Manos made an excellent point that “75% of the data center costs are effected by site selection.” Great architecture is designed to a site characteristics. But, the status quo is to design data centers that are built based on past experiences. Green data centers need to be designed to fit with site characteristics.

Mike wrote a post on site selection.

Kickin’ Dirt

December 21, 2009 by mmanos

Mike Manos was out at the Columbia, MO data center site to kick the dirt, and he recalls there not being enough fiber being in Columbia from his past data center research. The team luckily had Mike for a day without his cell phone as he forgot it at home, so they had his undivided attention.

Chicago and Kansas City are midwest centers for cattle which was connected by railway.

And Interstate 70 connects Kansas City and St. Louis.

There must be more fiber available. With a little "kickin the dirt" and willingness to spend a bit of more and time, there are 4 more providers few discuss.

Global Crossing

Sprint

XO Communications

MNA - Missouri Network Alliance

Kicking the dirt further, turns out Level 3 has two fiber paths in Columbia - the typical interstate 70, and a little known WillTel's pipeline fiber.

Also the North South path on Highway 63 is available for future growth.

In general, Columbia is a place to take take a piss and fast food break between Kansas City and St. Louis. There are three fiber trenches running this same path that can be tapped within 30 miles of Columbia. Note the 30 mile separation helps meet the fiber requirement for geographic diversity.

Now that the team has kicked the dirt, it is easy to tell the fiber access story in Columbia, MO. 400 megawatts of power and plenty of available fiber.

Pike Research forecasts 2010 to 2015 microgrid growth from 100 to 2,000

March 11, 2010 Dave Ohara

One of the biggest changes coming to the power grid are microgrids. Pike Research has a report on microgrids.

More than 2,000 Microgrids to be Deployed by 2015

January 26, 2010

Microgrids, which are “islanded” power generation and distribution zones that can operate autonomously from the larger electrical grid, are an increasing area of focus for institutions, governments, corporations, and utilities. According to a recent report fromPike Research, a variety of trends are converging to create significant growth potential for microgrids, and the cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that more than 2,000 sites will be operational worldwide by 2015, up from fewer than 100 in 2010.

“The distinguishing feature of a microgrid is the ability to separate and isolate itself from the utility’s distribution system during brownouts and blackouts,” says managing director Clint Wheelock. “This degree of localized control is compelling for many microgrid proponents during this time of increasing concern over grid reliability.”

Out of the 2,000, one microgrid will be at the Ewing Industrial Park in Columbia, MO, the site where the Open Source Data Center Initiative ideas will be tested.

There is a lot of information in the report which you can buy here.

Key questions addressed:

What is a “microgrid” and what are its key components and features?

Why are inverters the key advance enabling microgrids to develop today despite opposition from many electric utilities?

What are the key market drivers at the policy level – and why does the United States have the best near-term market opportunity?

Why are microgrids inevitable if investments in a smart grid are accompanied by a paradigm shift from central station to distributed generation supply sources?

Who are the big players – and new technology vendors – in the microgrid space, and what is their key role in developing this new energy market?

Who needs this report?

Microgrid Developers

Smart Grid Hardware and Software Providers

Venture Capitalists

Communities, institutions, and corporations interested in building their own microgrid

Distribution Utilities worried about worker safety and market share issues

Policy Makers examining new business models for renewable generation

Even though we could buy a copy of the report. Our first preference is to develop things from scratch with an open source approach, then publish the results. I would assume if we bought a copy of the report, we can't republish anything from it. And, any ideas we come up with potentially could be limited given we bought a research publication.

Which means we most likely will not be buying any other research as it would limit our ability to publish.

400 megawatt smorgasbord meal, 2,500 from nuclear, coal, and hydro plus renewable sources – all you can eat starting at $0.035 kw/hr

March 10, 2010 Dave Ohara

The Ewing Industrial Park in Columbia, MO has a unique power capability few can match. When I first visited the site, they said they had 80 megawatts of power. After seeing all the high voltage power transmission lines, one 345 kv, multiple 161 and 69 kv, they must be able to get more power. I told them go back to all the sources and find out how much they could get with transmission infrastructure. Why isn’t 80 megawatt enough for a data center? Because, if we want to get people to understand the available power infrastructure, we need a bigger number. A week later, they said we can get 400 megawatts.

How can you get 400 megawatts? Here is a summary of the power sources available.

In Summary, Ewing Business Park is within 50 miles of about 2500 MGW of redundant power generation capacity including Thomas Hill Coal(1153MGW), Ameren Fulton Nuclear at reform Missouri( 1159MGW), Ameren Hydro at Bagnell Dam(215 MGW), City of Columbia coal/biomass(39MGW), City of Columbia /Ameren natural gas(140MGW), and Associated natural gas(60MGW). The Ewing Site has numerous redundant feeds and suppliers to this power supply.

Thomas Hill Coal power.

Thomas Hill Energy Center key to providing low-cost energy

Thomas Hill Power Plant

Plant statistics

Unit 1 - 1966 General Electric turbine
Net capacity of 180 MW
Coal burn rate of 2,325 tons/day

Unit 2 - 1969 Westinghouse turbine
Net capacity of 303 MW
Coal burn rate of 3,476 tons/day

Unit 3 - 1982 Westinghouse turbine
Net capacity of 670 MW
Coal burn rate of 8,660 tons/day

The Thomas Hill Energy Center is comprised of three electrical generating units, built from 1966 to 1982 and totaling 1,153 megawatts, and a coal mine that is actively being reclaimed after closing in 1993.

AECI employs about 260 people at the Thomas Hill Energy Center, which has received national recognition for its efficiency and successful conversion to low-sulfur coal that significantly reduced sulfur dioxide emissions.

AECI also will achieve a system wide nitrogen oxides emission rate reduction of nearly 90 percent with completion in December 2008 of its $424 million environmental controls project at Thomas Hill to meet the Clean Air Interstate Rule.

Ameren Callaway Nuclear

Plant Profile

Location

The plant is located 10 miles southeast of Fulton, Missouri, in Callaway County; 25 miles northeast of Jefferson City, Missouri; 40 miles southeast of Columbia, Missouri; 100 miles west of St. Louis, Missouri; and 120 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri.

Plant Design

Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System (SNUPPS), using a Westinghouse four-loop pressurized reactor and a General Electric turbine-generator.

Generating Capacity

1,190 megawatts (net)

Bagnell Dam

Bagnell Dam impounds the Osage River in the U.S. state of Missouri, creating the Lake of the Ozarks. The 148-foot (45 m) tall concrete gravity dam was built by the Union Electric Company (now AmerenUE) for the purpose of hydroelectricpower generation as its Osage Powerplant. It is 2,543 feet (775 m) long, including a 520-foot (160 m) long spillway and a 511-foot (156 m) long power station. The facility with eight generators has a maximum capacity of 215 megawatts.

Here is more information about the site providing the Ewing Industrial Park engineering team.

The background on the availability is actually quite simple. Ewing Business Park is served electric by the city of Columbia Missouri. They are a member of MISO which is the Midwest independent transmission service operator. The city has purchase/supply transmission agreements with Associated Electric and Ameren. The city also generates some of their own power. Currently Ewing Business park is bisected by a 345 kV line, and served by Numerous 161 kV lines, and numerous 69kV lines. Ewing business Park is directly adjacent to a large city owned regional substation called the Bolstad Sub station. The city has indicted that the Bolstad could serve immediate 100 MGW right now to the Ewing Park with their own infrastructure and purchase arrangements up to 200 MGW if planned. There are 4 other regional substations owned by the City and Central Electric ranging from ½ mile to 4 miles. These substations are tapped to ameren feeders in some cases. This Bolstad substation is directly adjacent to a 140 MGW natural gas fired power plant. (1) This power plant is referred to as the Columbia Energy Center or CEC. This power plant is currently operated as peaking plant that can fire up to 90% capacity quickly. The ownership of this plant is the city of Columbia and Ameren energy. The city has taken the recent steps to acquire total remaining ownership of the power plant. The city has a 39 MGW coal/wood biomass fired plant about 5 miles away. (2) . Associated Electric has a large Coal fired power plant just 40 miles away. It is a 1153 MGW coal fired facility. The Bolstad connection to this power plant is a direct 161 kV transmission line with no other taps. This line is 50 % owned by the city of Columbia and 50% by Central Electric (the wholesale transmission provider for associated). Todd Culley with Boone Electric and Ralph Schulte with Central Electric stated that Associated can serve “ 200 MGW without a phone call to the city of Columbia Ewing site ”. They said they could easily provide 400 MGW with some notice. (3)

Let me further explain

In addition to this transmission line directly from Thomas hill, there is another redundant 161 kV line that comes from the Kingdom city Substation 16 miles away which is directly fed by the Thomas Hill 345 kV line that serves that Kingdom City Substation. In addition, to these two large independent transmission line feeders, Thomas Hill has another independent 69 kV transmission line that comes from the power plant that serves the city and Ewing from the large Prathersville substation that is 2 miles away from Ewing. (4) Associated has a natural gas fired power plant Called the Chamois Plant ( 60 MGW) about 40 miles away. It feeds Columbia by way of one 161 kV line and 2 -69 kV lines. All but one of these lines land at the Central/ Columbia Boone Sub on the south side of Columbia. This sub is about 12 miles from Ewing but the interesting thing is that the City has a 161 kV and a 69kV that both run around the east side of town and come to the Bolstad Substation directly from this Main transmission Tap. (5) From the Chamois plant the independent pathway 161 kV hits the Same Boone sub but from an independent pathway from the east.

Ameren UE has the 345 kV line that bisects Ewing. It does not have a substation off of it at Ewing but lands on the west side of Columbia at the Overton Substation about 19 miles away. There are 161 kV and 69 kV lines that then extend to Bolstad that are considered independent feeders. Ameren Would not state their capcity to serve publically from this line but currently they did say they could serve 200 MGW easily from the 345 kV line. (6) Ameren has Bagnell dam hydro electric power plant 50 miles away. It is rated at 215 MGW. The main services form this plant are through Associated’s 69kV line and Ameren’s 161 kV line that also goes to the overton sub.(7) Ameren has a Nuclear Power Plant 30 miles away at Fulton mo. . It is 1159 MGW. Bolstad serves the Fulton area by a direct 69 kV line. (8).

A different interpretation of “Open Source” in an Intelligence Analysis scenario that defines how GreenM3 works public data

March 9, 2010 Dave Ohara

I ran across the term Open Source Intelligence.

Open source intelligence (OSINT) is a form of intelligence collection management that involves finding, selecting, and acquiring information from publicly available sources and analyzing it to produce actionable intelligence.

This description fits what I have been telling others about the various data center sources of information.

“If there is a public publication of information, we are open to look at and provide feedback on the value we see in the information.”

Which is a pretty good description of how this blog has been run, commenting on public available information.

The description goes on to clarify the difference vs. open source software.

In the intelligence community (IC), the term "open" refers to overt, publicly available sources (as opposed to covert or classified sources); it is not related to open-source software or public intelligence.

Sources of information are:

OSINT includes a wide variety of information and sources:

Media: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and computer-based information.

Web-based communities and user generated content: social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.

Public data: government reports, official data such as budgets, demographics, hearings, legislative debates, press conferences, speeches, marine and aeronautical safety warnings, environmental impact statements and contract awards.

We have seen helicopters flying over Apple data centers, and world wide maps of Google data centers.

Observation and reporting: amateur airplane spotters, radio monitors and satellite observers among many others have provided significant information not otherwise available. The availability of worldwide satellite photography, often of high resolution, on the Web (e.g., Google Earth) has expanded open source capabilities into areas formerly available only to major intelligence services.

Professional and academic: conferences, symposia, professional associations, academic papers, and subject matter experts.^[1]

Most information has geospatial dimensions, but many often overlook the geospatial side of OSINT: not all open source data is unstructured text. Examples of geospatial open source include hard and softcopy maps, atlases, gazetteers, port plans, gravity data, aeronautical data, navigation data, geodetic data, human terrain data (cultural and economic), environmental data, commercial imagery, LIDAR, hyper and multi-spectral data, airborne imagery, geo-names, geo-features, urban terrain, vertical obstruction data, boundary marker data, geospatial mashups, spatial databases, and web services. Most of the geospatial data mentioned above is integrated, analyzed, and syndicated using geospatial software like a Geographic Information System (GIS) not a browser per se.

OSINT is distinguished from research in that it applies the process of intelligence to create tailored knowledge supportive of a specific decision by a specific individual or group.^[2]

I wonder how much OSINT has started searching twitter and Facebook.

In the Open Source Data Center Initiative I anticipate we be using this type of description for what we will be doing. Part of the challenge for the data center industry is there so much information out there, it is hard to make sense of it for an organization that doesn’t have a full staff of experienced professionals.

Here is where I got the idea for Open Source Intelligence.

Complimentary Online Seminar:

Real-Time Intelligence - Exploit Open Source Multimedia

Online Seminar

Real-Time Intelligence - Exploit Open Source Multimedia

Date: Thursday, March 18, 2010
Time: 11am Eastern; 8am Pacific
Duration: 1 Hour

Hello Dave,
Al Qaeda uses online videos to recruit and train. Other terrorist networks use audio files to disseminate messages. China circulates propaganda via video. The Internet is exploding with multimedia; streaming video, audio, images, PDFs and more. Open Source Intelligence needs to account for and take advantage of all advanced media types. But how?
Learn how you can:

Capture streaming video for on-demand classification and detailed examination

Automate extraction of multimediaOSINT and all contextual data

Transform complex data sources into accurate information for advanced analysis

Please join this free online seminar and see a live demonstration of Kapow Technologies’ advanced web harvesting capabilities in use at US Intelligence Agencies, extracting from sites like YouTube, China.org, Al-Jazeera and MySpace.

Open Source Data Center Initiative openness, flexibility, and methods not for everyone

March 8, 2010 Dave Ohara

There are critics of the Open Source Data Center Initiative. To be clear we don’t expect this to work for everyone. An example that illustrates the different approach is this IntoWorld article discussing the Google Android Phone vs. Apple iPhone. Some people want the iPhone, some want the Android. The Open Source Data Center Initiative is going to appeal to the users who consider the Android for its openness.

MARCH 03, 2010

Where Android beats the iPhone

Android's openness, flexibility, and Java foundation make it the best choice for many developers and the businesses that depend on them

By Peter Wayner | InfoWorld

The author starts out by discussing a simple feature of having a person’s picture show up when they call. You can do this on the iPhone as well.

But, the Google Android does this as well with Facebook integration.

The most interesting question to me is how Android's openness will change the entire ecosystem on the phone. On the first day I had the Nexus One, I created an entirely new test Gmail account to avoid any problems when I returned the phone. Yet when I called a friend by typing in his phone number, his face popped up on the screen. Was this a demonstration of the power of Google's endless databases to link together everything?

After some experimentation, I concluded that the photo came from the Facebook app I had installed on the phone. When I logged in to Facebook, the app pulled pictures, phone numbers, and who knows what else into my phone. I think I accepted this feature when the Facebook app's AndroidManifest.xml file was loaded, and I'm not sure if I can ever get rid of it.

Openness has its benefits.

This deeper openness is going to be the source of any number of surprises that will be even greater and more useful than the unexpected appearance of my friend's photo on the phone. I think some of the more serious companies will start to release APIs to their apps, allowing the programs themselves to link together and solve problems.

Yesterday I blogged about the concept of the Open Data Source Initiative having APIs.

Defining a Data Center API, on the list of things to do for Open Source Data Center Initiative

I have spent so much of my life working with Operating System nerds both at Apple and Microsoft that I take it for granted the concepts of an API.

An application programming interface (API) is an interface implemented by asoftware program to enable interaction with other software, similar to the way auser interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers.

Part of what the Google Android has is a more open development environment which encourages others to be open, but this doesn’t mean everything has to be open if you use the Open Source Data Center Initiative. In the same way that Google controls parts of the Android, we expect companies to implement their own ways to secure, protect, and optimize the designs to meet their business needs. But, at least we helped them with the 60 – 70% that is common across many data center designs.

There are other interesting questions about the role of cloud services in our smartphone future. Google is still guarding access to the Maps API and forcing developers to get an API key before deploying. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple, Palm, and others are frantically working on their own mapping, search, mail, and who knows what other cloud services. Right now the phones are little clients that aren't too closely linked to the Websites, but I can see that changing if better performance makes it possible to tilt the playing field. The quality of the cloud may become just as important as the slick GUI, app store, or number of pixels in the screen.

Consider the difference the author points out between the iPhone and Android audience.

This interaction with the cloud will be a question for the future. Right now, it seems that Apple won over the latte-sipping fashion plates who love the endless stream of cute games. Apple's decision to court the game developers is paying off in some amazing titles, but the Android platform is a real workhorse. Anyone who wants to do more than play games will find a huge range of possibilities in the Android platform.

While Apple is reportedly fixing some of the worst problems with the App Store process, the Android world avoids most of them by giving people the freedom to use the platform as they want. Considering that people have been using this freedom relatively successfully with PCs for decades, it's a welcome opportunity in the world of handhelds.

I have a good friend who is an operating system and application SW developer turned Data Center Service Manager, running online services for a Fortune 1000 company. He is a big user of open source operating system and data center tools, and he made the switch from the IPhone to Android for the development environment. This is a small percentage of the cell phone audience, and his points align with Peter Wayne’s. As Google and Apple fight the cell phone wars, think about all the Google Data Center guys who have Androids running their own mobile data center apps. At Apple and Microsoft, the mobile phone is not their data center tool, but Google it could be happening.

It would be interesting to play with a Google Data Center engineers Android and see their application list. :-) But, I doubt they’ll let it out of their hands.

The author Peter Wayne previously wrote about tools for IT Pros in Jan 2010.

Better Terminal Emulator

The outside world may call it a phone, but it's really a Linux box that fits in your pocket. And that means there must be a command line somewhere. Better Terminal Emulator is the simplest way to open a window into the guts of the machine. Price: $3.99 for Pro, free with ads and fewer features.

bMonitor

Do you worry that your server is down when you're out of the office?bMonitor can test a server with a variety of protocols, such as ping, FTP, and HTTP. If the connection fails, the phone starts ringing. The tool offers a variety of customization options, including the ability to set how often the phone burns up battery power by testing a server. Too many tests can really wipe out a charge. It's not perfect -- I've found that bMonitor can get mixed up if the network connection is unstable or hogged by another app, leading to a false alarm. But a false alarm is often better than none at all. Price: Free.

O'Reilly's Pocket Companion Guides

There are now hundreds of O'Reilly books available as Android applications, so you can answer that burning tech question or settle that bet from the bar without opening up the laptop. All are dramatically cheaper than the books themselves, thus making them a very good buy. Price: $2.99 and up

GScript

You asked for power, and GScript gives you the power to run shell scripts with a push of a button. Whatever you do, though, remember that GScript explicitly reminds you that the authors are "in no way responsible for the damage caused by running scripts with this app." It comes in an ad-supported Lite edition or a professional version. Price: €2.20 or free with ads.