A smart grid is a transactive grid.
- Lynne Kiesling
Secretary Chu And The ‘Importance Of The Consumer’

Via The Energy Collective, a report on the keynote speech by U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu at the International Smart Grid Summit.  As the article notes,  Secretary Chu emphasized smart grid as a key to enabling modernization of our electrical system, but we found the following comments to be most insightful as they emphasize the link between the smart grid and smart markets:

“…Chu emphasized the importance of the consumer in grid modernization. Smart Grid must empower consumers through better information and give consumers the tools and incentives to manage their energy use and eliminate waste. In order to change consumer behavior, the demand response programmability must be as easy and automatic as possible. This automated demand response saves both capacity and energy. Chu used the analogy of a digital camera: there is the very simple option of automatic point-and-shoot but also the option for people to do more and take advantage of all available features if they so choose….”



This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.  You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.  You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 

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About This Blog And Its Authors
Grid Unlocked is powered by two eco-preneurs who analyze and reference articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between smart meters, smart grids, and above all: smart markets.

Based on decades of experience and interest in conservation, Monty Simus believes that a truly “smart” grid must be a “transactive” grid, unshackled from its current status as a so-called “natural monopoly.”

In short, an unlocked grid must adopt and harness the power of markets to incentivize individual users, linked to each other on a large scale, who change consumptive behavior in creative ways that drive efficiency and bring equity to use of the planet's finite and increasingly scarce resources.