Last Friday we had a Lab Planning/Visioning Retreat up to the Lamont Campus.  It was an refreshing time as we took a step back, considering things like a fully integrated georegistry software suite as well as the bigger picture behind the micro-utility project.

After (unsuccessfully) trying to obtain a portable POS device to develop with, we decided not to further pursue the use of POS devices.  Unless you are using a credit card (which our consumers will not), there is not value outside that which can be provided by a printer & cell phone.

Instead we’ll just be printing & selling scratch cards.

(POS device example image above, scratch card example images below)

Researchers from Columbia University (CU), University of California at Berkley (UCB), and several other industry representatives and individuals met for two days to discuss and plan micro-grids and enabling technologies & economic models.  It was decided that UCB would lead the effort on designing a custom meter while Columbia would begin field planning & implementation, payment gateway design, and deployment of a meter with off-the-shelf components.