Smart Grid Library

Utilities have a real challenge in succinctly communicating the benefits of smart meters.  Some benefits are not easily distilled into sound-bites.  However, utilities must improve their outreach to consumers to ensure that consumers understand the role of smart meters in helping them save money; helping utilities keep costs and electricity rates down; and reducing carbon [...]

Games are identified as one of the biggest trends for social media and mobile devices.  Gamification is called the next big thing for marketing.  Both have exciting implications for behavior change in the health care sector.  So will social games and gamification play a significant role in changing consumption behaviors for electricity, gas, and water?  [...]

The Smart Grid delivers disruptive technologies and services that will impact the entire electricity value chain of generation, transmission, distribution and consumption- meaning utilities and consumers.  Utility operations in generation, transmission, and distribution will be disrupted as work processes, business models, and service expectations change.  Overall, these disruptions are beneficial.  For instance, utilities know that [...]

Tis the season for the final flurry of business conferences before the Christmas holiday.  Last week I attended a Venture Capital Summit and an event focused on Emobility.  Emobility covers electric vehicles (EVs) and electrified transportation for individual or mass use.  There were two common messages within these conferences:  People are emotional about their car [...]

Do you know what demand response is?  If not, don’t worry – unless you are employed by a utility, it’s probably not a term you’ve seen or heard before.  It is utility-industry terminology for certain types of programs targeted to customers.  Here’s the Smart Grid Dictionary definition of Demand response programs:  “Utility programs designed to [...]

Last week’s blog discussed the importance of introductions or rollouts of disruptive technologies like smart meters and Home Energy Management System (HEMS) solutions that have exceptional visibility to residential customers.  A successful HEMS rollout is contingent upon a robust and expanded consumer engagement model.  Utilities (or their HEMS solution providers or Virtual Service Aggregators*) must [...]

I posed two questions last week to a number of Smart Grid-related groups organized within LinkedIn®.  The questions were:  “What do you consider to be the most important security challenges in protecting consumer data in a HEMS application, and what are the most important privacy challenges?”  I asked this question because this n application will [...]

My previous blogs touched on different aspects of the Smart Grid.  Now let’s talk about some of the common denominators of all solutions.  One is the fact that software will be a critical component to successful Smart Grid operations.  And not just any software – but open, standards-based, interoperable, and secure software.  The National Institute [...]