Courtesy of Earth2Tech, an interesting forecast of the top 10 trends for the Smart Grid in 2010. Several caught our eye since they tie in – to a certain extent – to our belief that smart grids need to be transactive. We also believe that the Grand Slam (#9 below) is an emerging trend, but we may argue that water should also be included into the mix given the “watergy nexus”:
“…7) Distributed Generation and Load Shaping Will Be the New “Killer Apps”: In the mid-1990s, everyone used to ask what the Internet’s “killer app” (i.e., the application that would propel massive adoption and growth) was. Seems rather quaint from our 2009 vantage point. Yet keen minds involved with the Smart Grid are now asking a similar question. But first the following queries about distributed generation and load shaping need to be answered:
- How can utilities safely incorporate and distribute alternative energy?
- How will utilities manage and distribute all that new energy going back into the Smart Grid? Has two-way energy management been a heretofore ignored issue?
- How does this transform utilities’ value-add? Do they become energy brokers/marketplaces, as well as energy providers? Will deregulated markets help or hinder this process?
- How will consumers’ interests be protected? Who really wins?
- If harnessed properly, can we end our reliance on fossil fuels?
The Birth of Retail Energy Will Be Upon Us: With connected smart meters, utilities are on the cusp of developing more powerful ways to connect and communicate online with consumers. Moreover, utilities will need to listen closely to consumers, and work hard to deliver what consumers want. That’s exciting, but daunting. Our prediction: The birth of ‘retail energy’ will happen first in deregulated markets, where there exist meaningful incentives for both utilities and consumers to communicate and transact online.
9) The “Grand Slam” –- Energy, Voice, Video and Data — Will Emerge: Back at the start of the century, telecommunications companies described the “triple play” (voice, video, data) opportunity –- a convergence of all media into the home, provided by a single vendor, and streamed onto a variety of consumer devices (phones, TVs, computers, and more). The Smart Grid is the first opportunity to enable the “quadruple play,” and I believe it will be big –- very big! Quadruple play is made possible by the use of standards-based, scalable smart grid architectures that connect and leverage feature-rich devices and functionality, along with high-bandwidth (and low cost) 4G networking. We are already seeing both vendors and utilities evaluate the benefits of this “quadruple play” approach as they build out their smart grids…”
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