Comment by bluedino

8 hours ago

It makes sense to have them connected for a lot of reasons.

which reasons?

  • Remote monitoring is one of them presumably

    • But is it completely impossible to separate the monitoring and equipment/management?

      Stupid example like the equipment itself is not networked, but you could watch via a webcam and/or get metrics via image recognition.

      Maybe it's safer just to have somebody work the night shift.

      1 reply →

  • In addition to remote monitoring, central control over large systems clearly has benefits: quickly and automatically spinning up a power generation in one location in response to an outage or just increased demand in another one, or conversely spooling down generation in response to a large demand spike going away (many factories need to notify the grid before starting up or shutting down), shutting down water/gas flow upstream of a detected leak, or yes, working from home, which lots of people here regularly argue is a good thing.

    You could absolutely make the case that it isn't worth the risk, but that isn't the same as not having benefits.