What happens to permacomputing when electricity grids shift to decentralised green energy, and local communities and municipalities have increased governance over this vital public service? Electricity and computational networks are more than just separate systems that plug together. Shifts to renewable energy generation in the grid are impacting computational systems, and computational demands on electrical power are impacting the electricity grid; one infrastructure limits the other. Permacomputing research tends to focus on 'off-grid' or 'behind-the-meter' energy. This sacrifices some of the social justice benefits that the public electricity grid, managed and regulated for universal service, was designed to provide. Our paper uses empirically-grounded 'speculative fabulation' to identify research opportunities in permacomputing that open up when energy systems are federated across communities. The speculative fabulation takes the form of an interview between the energy manager of a future energy island in the North Sea and a permacomputing podcaster. This allows us to conceive of computing-grid integration in tractable social and ecological terms, and introduce a notion of 'fair trade energy'.

翻译：当电网转向去中心化绿色能源，且地方社区和市政当局对这一关键公共服务拥有更多治理权时，永久计算会变成什么样？电力和计算网络不仅仅是相互连接的独立系统。电网中可再生能源发电的转变正在影响计算系统，而计算对电力的需求也在影响电网；一个基础设施制约着另一个。永久计算研究往往侧重于“离网”或“表后”能源。这牺牲了为普遍服务而管理和监管的公共电网所设计提供的一些社会正义利益。我们的论文使用基于实证的“思辨虚构”来识别永久计算中的研究机会，这些机会在能源系统跨社区联邦化时得以显现。该思辨虚构以未来北海能源岛的能源经理与一位永久计算播客主持人之间的访谈形式呈现。这使我们能够以可处理的社会和生态术语来构想计算-电网的整合，并引入“公平贸易能源”的概念。