That has changed significantly over the past decade as a result of technological advances distributed power solutions.
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When the grid goes down, distributed power is often the last line of defense for mission-critical first responder facilities.
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The new system is suitable for numerous industry sectors including highway transportation, marine, rail and remote industries such as mining and distributed power generation.
If millions of people send just a little bit back to the grid, peer-to-peer just like we send information on the internet, that's distributed power.
In 2007, an estimated 12 million generators had been installed across in the United States, with a total capacity of more than 200 gigawatts, according to a Brookings Institute report on distributed power systems.
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Global revenues from clean tech businesses--including air and water purification, advanced materials, distributed power generation, renewable energy, and process controls, such as sensors to monitor air and water--now surpass 85 billion pounds, according to the Cleantech Venture Network, a for-profit membership group that connects venture and institutional investors with entrepreneurs.
PowerSecure pioneered the Interactive Distributed Generation IDG power systems platform, which uses sophisticated electricity forecasting software to reduce operating costs through peak shaving, enhances demand response resources and provides a suite of standby power solutions.
Distributed state meant that adding nodes also added capability and that ownership and power stayed distributed as the Net grew.
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The company partners with leading global companies in the transportation, oil and gas, aerospace, defence, distributed generation and portable power markets.
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But the city, where power is distributed mainly by two private firms, is an exception: almost everywhere else state electricity boards operate the grid, usually badly.
But the distributed computing allowed by the revamped power grid could introduce a new economic paradigm - what Mr Rifkin calls "distributed capitalism".
But Thomas Edison's idea--that power should be distributed as direct current--is being revived.
Across Europe, governments and regions still squabble over how power should be distributed.
Over in Zimbabwe a constitutional draft had suggested that the presidential term should be limited to 10 years and that executive power should be distributed within a cabinet.
Unlike traditional "centralized" systems, distributed energy relies on small power-generating technologies like solar panels or ultra-efficient natural-gas turbines built near the point of energy consumption to supplement or displace grid-distributed electricity.
Without prior knowledge of what happens in a world where power is only distributed to those who are considered worthy, the newer generations have failed to see the warning signs of a closing internet and did not demand that things remain as open as they could be.
Remember, wealth and power were pretty evenly distributed in the world until around the 16th Century.
Before most moneymen, Rock recognized the energizing power of stock options distributed to a broad segment of a young company's talent.
The trick is a single implanted power source and a distributed system of controllers that will manage several different physical functions.
Distributed energy aims to decouple profits and consumption so that power companies have a greater incentive to invest in energy-efficiency technologies that drive distributed-energy networks.
Then there's a small-technology approach: solar power, wind energy and distributed generation.
In recent years, this dynamic has become especially problematic as technological advances have accelerated market penetration of customer-sited solar photovoltaics, combined heat and power and other genres of distributed generation.
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Their mistake: to underestimate the power of the Internet's distributed technology to evolve with demand.
Now the world is rebalancing - power and wealth will become more evenly distributed across countries.
Instead, with distributed generation, individuals or businesses generate their own power on their property and use it themselves or sell it back to the grid.
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Omega sued Costco for selling its watches for prices below suggested retail, citing a tiny Omega logo on the goods that it said gave it the copyright holders power to control how creative works are distributed.
This is most particularly true in developing countries that lack energetic fuels and power grid infrastructures, and which depend on distributed systems.
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Cable set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta may be guilty of the most bizarre power button behavior for its digital video recorder distributed by TimeWarner Cable.
He said the distributed generator should get the same price as the generator of the power grid.
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