Understanding and Connecting Smart Meters, Smart Grids, and Smart Markets.
- Lynne Kiesling
March 13th, 2010
Courtesy of The Smart Grid News, an interesting look at Intel’s newly released Intelligent Home Energy Management software and some speculation that perhaps Intel is joining Smart Grid latecomers Google, Microsoft, Apple and Cisco in a bid to dominate the market or even to make utilities obsolete. More importantly, however, is the author’s impassioned plea for smart grid players to realize that – as it begins to reach into homes – the smart grid will create another channel for creative applications and “the victory will go to the company that creates a platform and an ecosystem of developers who build compelling applications on top.”
As the article notes:
“…You could hardly blame utilities for being suspicious about Intel’s newly released Intelligent Home Energy Management software. Just consider what’s happening in the telecom space. Google and Apple are trying to “disintermediate” the telcos. They want to own the customer relationship, so the loyalty is to your Android or Apple phone, not to the carrier.
Indeed, Google has received approval to become a power marketer and is already under an antitrust cloud in Europe. Meanwhile Apple has achieved virtual monopoly control over online music and is experimenting with home energy management. As for Microsoft… well, Microsoft is always under suspicion (and damn proud of it).
So I asked Lori Wigle, head of Intel’s Open Energy Initiative, to explain their motives. She says the strategy is still Intel Inside, not Intel Uber Alles. The consumer dashboard (pictured below) is a prototype and a reference design. Though Intel may private label the dashboard via utilities and manufacturers, they won’t be trying to build a branded interface as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Cisco are trying to do.
I came away with the impression that Intel wanted to prime the pump by showing what an interface could look like. And, equally important, what an “App Store” might look like.
No question today’s Smart Grid players could use a swift kick in the apps right now. They still don’t seem to realize that, as it begins to reach into homes, the Smart Grid will create another channel for creative applications. The victory will go to the company that creates a platform and an ecosystem of developers who build compelling applications on top. Unless we’re just planning to wait for Steve Jobs to come take over this market too, we need companies to start getting creative about the solutions they build on top of the infrastructure. Kudos to Intel for pointing the way…”
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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.