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Ariel, Israel Beta Project History
In 2006 Tom Tamarkin visited Mayer Ron Nachman of the City of Ariel Israel along with USCL former Board of Directors member Jeffrey Michel. It was agreed that USCL would work with the City of Ariel to install a beta pilot project of electricity meters connected to in-home displays and a Wi-Fi based city operated network for data logging and monitoring.
Here are Jeffrey Michel's thoughts on the project at the time:"Tom,
This approach could develop into a crucial project with positive international consequences probably not perceptible to most observers.
Ariel can really become a crystallization point for the alleviation of tensions in the Middle East and the world through the application of intelligent technology. This incidentally was the kind of aspiration I harbored when coming to eastern Germany to work in the early 90's. Major Nachman and I have a good deal in common in that we prefer working in places where tension can become an effective catalyst of change. The difference between our situations is that the innovative energies that should have been unleashed in eastern Germany have been defused by the immense lignite (brown coal) reserves here. No politician will go out to forage for new food when he thinks he has a full cupboard, and only recently has that cupboard proven to be tainted by greenhouse gases.
The Russian connection is also quite promising in Ariel, since a research and marketing approach to Eastern Europe could be established via the city." --Jeffrey H. Michel
In December 2007, Mayor Nachman visited Sacramento and the Governor’s office. He described the plan to Governor Schwarzenegger and was interviewed by Kathleen Karl reporting for the Sacramento Jewish Voice Newspaper who published an article in January 2008.
After the meeting at the Governor’s office a dinner party was held with the Mayor in Sacramento attended by Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) Board Member Bill Slaton. Part of the USCL plan was for SMUD to conduct an identical beta project in Sacramento at the same time as the Ariel project and both SMUD and IEC would share results. USCL was attempting to push SMUD to deploy new smart meters with home display connectivity; SMUD was reluctant to do so.
In late December 2007, Sima Toledano, Tom Tamarkin, and Victor Kolesnichenko USCL’s DM-06 digital meter specification architect and meter design engineer met in Ariel along with the Mayor and the Ariel University Chancellor, Yigal, Cohen Orgad to discuss the project and draft a preliminary plan for a University project to conduct the beta study.
This was part of the USCL marketing efforts. In the United States no studies had been prepared showing the results of energy conservation by consumers using in-home energy displays providing real time feedback. The industry was generally opposed to this concept and the U.S. DOE subsequently approved and later rejected a grant for USCL to conduct such testing in the United States. Meter companies, utilities and “Big Data” companies lobbied against this. Follow this link to a video discussion regarding the DOE backed SBIR grant. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15cY_0dpnIw .
The project in Ariel was dependent on the City gaining the participation of Northern Telcom to expand its city Wi-Fi citywide. NT agreed and later pulled out of its funding commitment as the world economy collapsed in 2008. The Mayor obtained a quasi-commitment from Motorola, but they too pulled out due to economic conditions.
In the 2008 time frame USCL was in grave financial condition due to lack of investor interest and was unable to complete its ABS bond offering through Arcis Trust and Michael Kessler, ESQ. Thus the Ariel beta project was abandoned.
It should be noted that power meters used in Israel are different than those used in North America. The plan was to work with Israel Electric Company (IEC) to modify an IEC approved digital meter to transmit the real time data to both the in-home display devices and interface the data connection to the Wi-Fi backbone. Israel Electric agreed to pay for the digital power meters and install them if the other parties fulfilled their financial commitments.
An initial topographical site analysis was conducted by an outside contractor at the request of USCL in Q1 2008. No further effort was devoted to the Ariel project after that time.
In April 2011 Tom Tamarkin met with several potential investors in Los Angeles and New York City who had donated millions of dollars to Ariel and the Ariel University to attempt to find a project sponsor. There was little interest in the “smart energy” project because it is difficult to understand and long term.
In December 2012, Tom Tamarkin and our longtime friend & colleague, Amalia Ishak met with Mayor Ron Nachman at his home in Ariel four weeks before the Mayor passed away from cancer.
