A smart grid is a transactive grid.
- Lynne Kiesling
Author Archive

Texas Mulls New Grid Markets For Aggregated Distributed Energy Resources

Via Breaking Energy, a report on some new ideas in Texas for aggregating solar, storage and other DERs could unlock the state’s grid-edge potential: Texas, despite being one of the country’s largest and sunniest energy markets, has not seen a lot of growth of distributed solar power. Beyond low energy prices, one big reason is that […]

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Smart Grid Powers Energy Sharing

Via EETimes, a report on an interesting peer-to-peer energy sharing anti-poverty program enabled by smart grid and Internet technologies: In the U.S. there are approximately 40 million people that may be at risk of experiencing energy poverty. Energy poverty occurs when people cannot afford to pay for their energy needs. Peer-to-peer energy sharing, or crowdsourcing of energy, […]

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Water Pricing In Two Thirsty Cities: In One, Guzzlers Pay More, And Use Less

Courtesy of the New York Times, an interesting article on the impact of pricing on water use: When residents of this parched California city opened their water bills for April, they got what Mayor Ashley Swearengin called “a shock to the system.” The city had imposed a long-delayed, modest rate increase — less than the […]

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California Has A Real Water Market — But It’s Not Exactly Liquid

Courtesy of Grist, an interesting look at how market mechanisms are used to trade some water in California: When I started reporting on California’s drought I heard a lot of people complaining that farmers were growing crops that would simply be prohibitively expensive if they had to buy and sell their water at a fair […]

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California’s Water Woes Are Priceless

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, an interesting OpEd on the power of pricing and how politics can preclude a rational solution to drought: The California Aqueduct and Interstate 5 near Gustine, Calif. California’s drought is frightful and a challenge for an 800-word column, since the problem can be solved in five words: charge realistic […]

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Water Pricing, Not Engineering, Will Ease Looming Water Shortages

Courtesy of the New York Times, an OpEd on the potential use of pricing and markets to help alleviate water shortages: Authorities in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, recently announced that if current drought conditions persisted, they would be forced to restrict water availability for the city of 20 million to only two days per […]

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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.