Pecan Street Project aims to merge wireless with utilities

RCR Wireless News sat down with Brewster McCracken, executive director of the Pecan Street Project in Austin, Texas, to discuss how the telecommunications sector will intersect with utilities. McCracken, a recognized Austin figure who spent two terms on the Austin City Council, talks about how a smart-grid can do everything from helping people remember they are out of orange juice to helping the sandwich generation monitor their aging parents’ activities while still giving them privacy.
The Pecan Street Project’s mission is to design and implement an energy generation and management system that generates a power plant’s worth of power from clean sources within the city limits and delivers it over an advanced delivery system that allows for unprecedented customer energy management and conservation. Wireless services are part of that effort because the technology can deliver the intelligence to the grid.
Utilities are good at managing electrical grids, but wireless carriers will be better able to access and use data from the grid, McCracken said.
For the complete interviews, click here to view them on RCRWireless.tv.