A modern, digital electrical delivery system or smart grid would:

Increase Efficiency
Energy consumers would be encouraged with variable pricing to shift their use from high demand periods to low demand periods. By decreasing peak demand surges our entire energy infrastructure could be run more efficiently. This would be enabled in part by an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI).  AMI can be used for electricity, gas, and water and helps produce efficiencies across all of these industries. For example, it would help consumers by providing real-time monitoring of their utility usage. In addition, as Ali Shahkar a VP from UISOL pointed out to me, advanced "demand response" (DR) solutions would create even more efficiencies by better coordinating usage and generation.  

Accommodate Alternative Energy Sources
A smart grid would better accommodate intermittent alternative energy sources such as wind and solar.  Beyond digitizing our current infrastructure, the "Unified Smart Grid" as promoted by Al Gore would also require a new high capacity backbone that could distribute energy from where it is generated (solar in the Southwest or wind in the Midwest) to where it is consumed.

Enable Microgrids
A new smart grid would also allow for generation at the local (rooftop panels) and regional (microturbines) levels. It would enable the more efficient and more reliable microgrids which are composed of small generators each of which are located close to a collection of users.  Microgrids are advocated by former Motorola CEO Robert Galvin and former Electric Power Research Institute CEO Kurt Yeager in their book "Perfect Power." Organizations working on microgrids include CERTS (Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions) at the Microgrid Testbed at Dolan Technology Center and GE (a good microgrid overview document from GE here).

Provide More Stable Power
With real-time information, problems on the electric grid can be more quickly identified and resolved. However, there are some concerns about the security of a digitized grid as recently voiced by IOActive. A new stable and secure power system would have to be designed with cyber security in mind.

Smart Grid Money
President Obama has often spoken about the need for a smart grid and recently allocated $11B allocated for it in the stimulus package he signed in February (NY Times 3/27/09). GigaOm's Earth2Tech says that "Smart Grid Companies are in a 'Feeding Frenzy' over Stimulus".  Along with the continued funding of GreenTech companies, several SF Bay Area SmartGrid companies such as Trilliant and Silver Spring Networks have recently received additional investments.

Smart Grid IT Companies
"Energy is the biggest market opportunity of our lifetime" (attributed to John Doerr in a previous blog post) so most of the major IT players have smart grid initiatives (such as IBM, GE, SAP, Microsoft, Google, Accenture, and Cisco). For a more complete list of companies involved in smart grid work check out GridWise's member page or Silver Spring Networks' list of smart grid technical partners. GridWise Alliance and Demand Response and Smart Grid (DRSG) Coalition are two of the major industry associations.

Chris King, the Chief Strategy Officer from eMeter, told me the major AMI players include:
     -Itron: HQ in Washington State
     -Elster: HQ in Luxembourg
     -Landis+Gyr: HQ in Switzerland
     -Sensus: HQ in Raleigh, NC
For a list of AMI and MDMS (Meter Data Management Systems) standards bodies check this list on eMeter's site.

SF Bay Area Smart Grid Players
San Francisco Bay Area companies and organizations active in the smart grid space include:
     -Electric Power Research Institute - a non-profit consortium of utilities and companies which acts as both an R&D lab and a think tank.
     -Google which described their partnership with GE on the smart grid in their blog (and here is an outside perspective). 
     -Cisco which is dipping its toe into the smart grid industry.
     -Oracle which has metering and data management software as part of their utilities practice and recently published a smart grid report.
     -OSISoft has taken advantage of their position as the leader in managing time series data and events for utilities to create products for AMI and the smart grid.  Partners include SAP.    
     -Silver Spring Networks creates IP based intelligent utility networking.
     -Trilliant offers wireless network solutions and software for AMI and the smart grid.
     -Lawrence Berkeley National Lab including PIER Demand Response Research Center and The Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS)
     -Echelon which provides control networks and other AMI infrastructure.
     -eMeter provides software for real-time monitoring and demand / response solutions in the AMI and MDMS space.
     -Greenbox  creates consumer focused AMI software.
     -Pacific Gas and Electric owns the infrastructure and much of the knowledge on energy management in the SF Bay Area.
     -AgileWaves has a web-based AMI offering.
     -OrbitCRM creates energyOrbit a SaaS demand side management tool.

Additional Resources:
In my previous blog post I mentioned some interesting GreenTech companies and resources. Here are some more sources on the smart grid:
     -DOE's overview of the "The Smart Grid"
     -Smart Grid News
     -Energy Central's smart grid section
     -GreenMonk.Net 
     -Power Magazine
     -Smart grid section of GreenTechMedia
     -California Public Utilities Commission workings on smart grid (recommended to me by Matt Barmack from PG&E)
     -Public Utilities Review
     -Energy Pulse
     -Utilimetrics
     -Electric Energy Online

A few weeks ago I talked about Web 2.0 marketing in my class.  People are using tools such as blogs, podcasts, forums, and social media sites to better communicate with their customers.

For example at Elfster, we have a blog and a Facebook group.   During the class Aaron Burcell discussed his go-to-market plan for Smarty Card which included both traditional marketing and Web 2.0. (Check out The Wall Street Journal's article "The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World" and "Adding Social Media to Marketing & PR" by Lee Odden).

Recently I ran across IBM's new "A Smarter Planet" blog. It is a good Web 2.0 attempt to show their involvement and thought leadership on topics such as the smart grid, smart transportation, etc.  They use a mix of text, audio, and video including this video which is lighthearted overview of the smart grid.  The format seems uncharacteristic of Big Blue and I am guessing that was deliberate. 

Our thirst for energy will continue to grow as global populations and global economies continue to grow.  The economic expansion of developing countries such as India and China and the increased globalization of the world's markets will only accelerate our needs.

In June 2008, the US Energy Information Administration predicted energy consumption will rise by 50 percent from 2005 to 2030 with the vast majority of this being driven by developing countries.  World electricity generation is will nearly double from about 17.3 trillion kilowatthours in 2005 to 24.4 trillion kilowatts in 2015 and 33.3 trillion kilowatthours in 2030.

Countries are trying to cope with this capacity issue by building new power plants.  "China's power sector has been expanding at a rate roughly equivalent to three to four new coal-fired, 500 megawatt plants coming on line every week," said MIT associate professor Edward S. Steinfeld as reported by MIT News on 10/6/08.  However due to a variety of constraints including the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, there will be an increasing demand to make this growth less reliant on fossil fuels. 

The venture capital community is and will continue to invest in alternative energy (“Venture Capital Community Not Worried About Greentech Investment Bubble, See Significant Increase in 2009 Funding, KPMG Study Finds” PR News Sept 23 2008).  Although there has been some concern recently about the loss of momentum in this field (“Momentum Slows for Alternative Energy” New York Times 10/20/08; “Slump May Limit Moves on Clean Energy” New York Times 11/25/08). 

However, these investments could easily be dwarfed by the US Federal Government getting more involved. As reported in The New York Times article “Obama Vows Public Works on Vast Scale” (12/7/08) “(Obama) said he would invest record amounts of money in the vast infrastructure program, which (also) includes … electrical grids, damns and other public utilities.  The green jobs would include various categories, including jobs dedicated to creating alternative fuels, windmills and solar panels.”  On Barack Obama's campaign website he stated that his goal is to "help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future."

On the demand side, utilities have begun to rely more on cleanteach (“Utility execs anticipate few acquisitions, but more reliance on cleantech” Venture Beat 5/8/08). Here in California the goal is for electricity providers to have 20% of their portfolio coming from renewable sources by 2010 (California Public Utilities Commission).  One would hope that the supporting regulation would follow government investment.  A simple way to jump start this industry is to change the buying habits of the world's largest procurer, the US Federal Government.

While public regulation is necessary to grow this important industry, renewable energy companies must strive to cost the same as fossil fuel.  Some green technologies such as solar are claiming that their price points are getting close to those of oil or gas (few cents per KWH).  This is much less than previously considered possible, however that still means it is still 10X more expensive than coal. (Read "Understanding the Costs of Solar Energy.")

How much would it take to replace our oil habit (a cubic mile of oil per year)? Roughly 4.2 billion solar rooftops, 300 million wind turbines, 2500 nuclear power plants or 200 Three Gorges Dams, according to SRI International (as reported by Forbes on 7/9/08). So just beginning to supplement our oil dependencies will require a huge investment.  I agree with John Doerr who at the November 2008 Web 2.0 conference stated that "Energy is the biggest market opportunity of our lifetime."


Here are some interesting GreenTech companies and resources:
     AlwaysOn GreenTech 100 and Greentech Media's Top Ten Startups
     Renewable Energy Stocks Website and Green Tech Investor
     Top 100 Renewable Energy Sites
     CNet "Green Companies to Watch: Renewable Energy"
     Inc's Top 50 Private Energy Companies

 A few magazines: Energy Biz, Photon International, and Solar Industry
   
From Peter O'Brien:
    Jefferies Research Clean Technology Primer 
    Grentech Media's Concentrating Photovoltaic series
    McKinsey Quarterly's Economics of Solar Power

From Tony Chen:   
    Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power  (a good book about the California utilities and how they began to use RFPs to purchase outside power instead of building their own generating assets recommended by Rob Lamkin)
    Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry (a primer on current photovoltaic technologies and some of the economics)
    The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity (Tony says haven't read it yet, but it looks good.)  
    Hot, Flat, and Crowded (John says speaks to our climate and economic situation)
    Energy at the Crossroads