Reflection of Theme 3: Research and Theory

From last weeks Theme I picked the research paper “Smart Grid Technologies: Communication Technologies and Standards”. From the journal, “Journal IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics” with impact factor 3.38. Which contained propositions about different techniques concerning Smart grid, and standards. Comparing different types of communications, benefits and limitations. To sum up an overview of general effects described in the paper through a transition to smart grid. It would decrease energy storage problems, the capacity limitations of electricity generation, switches causing slow response times, resilience problems and emission of fossil fuels. It would also oppress lack of situational awareness through two-way communication.

Limiting factors in the deployment process are time of deployment, operational costs, the availability of the technology and rural/urban or indoor/outdoor environment. The technology choice that fits one environment may not be suitable for the other. Smart grid systems also lack a widely accepted standard, which prevents integration of advanced applications, smart meters, smart devices and renewable energy sources and interoperability between them.

I would consider the research paper to be a theory of design and action, it explains “how to do”. As described above this research paper shows different possibilities of conduct and form of techniques for constructing an artifact (smart grid). The main theories provide a contemporary look at the current state of the art in smart grid communications. Weighing pros and cons, and discussing research issues in this field. Also balances these different communication solutions and world standards against each other. I believe this kind of theory “Design and Action” is a great exploratory theory for others to pick up and develop from any state of the progress, and find new solutions. Viable theories as “Prediction”, “Explanation and Prediction” and “Design and Action” I believe contributes more to development through trial and error. I’m currently taking the course Evaluation methods in HCI, where we evaluate technical systems. Before performing our evaluation we first plan and discuss our evaluation method, we then perform a pilot test for our method to determine if it’s suitable. Through the pilot there always occurs new discoveries about how to improve the performance, which not was obvious during the discussion.