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

Smart Meters, Smart Choices

Via NPR’s All Things Considered, an interesting article on one woman’s first hand experience with smart meters.  As the report notes: When PPL put a smart meter on Yeakel’s house, she didn’t even notice at first. But when the company launched the Web site to help customers use information from the meters to save money, […]

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Demand Response Top Driver of Smart Grid Implementation

Via Smart Grid News, research showing that demand response and peak shaving have jumped to the top of the list as drivers of Smart Grid implementation at North Amercian utilities:

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Is 2009 Really The Year Of The Smart Meter?

Via Earth2Tech, some news to help balance a bit of the hype around smart meters.  As the report notes: “…So where’s all the smart-grid money that’s supposed to pour into fancy new smart meters? According to Itron, a leader in the smart-meter sector, it’s stuck in the pockets of slow moving utilities. Liberty Lake, Wash.,-based […]

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Your Utility Wants To Talk To You…

Again courtesy of The New York Times, an interesting article on smart grids, the likely demise of flat rate pricing, and other emerging trends.  As the report notes: “…Experts have talked about a smart electric system for two decades, with many false starts, but cheaper communications and computing — and federal stimulus money — could […]

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Smart(er) Infrastructure

Via The New York Times, a report on smart infrastructure.  As the article notes: “IN the mid-1990s, the Internet took off because its technological time had come. Years of steady progress in developing more powerful and less expensive computers, Web software and faster communications links finally came together. A similar pattern is emerging today, experts […]

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Smart (Grid) Investing and Utility “Sampling”

Via Earth2Tech, an interesting article on how venture capitalists are evaluating early stage smart grid startups.  As the article notes: “…The massive market opportunity of the smart grid, invigorated by stimulus funds and new energy efficiency rules, is clear — but how are venture capitalists deciding which early stage smart grid startups to back? Well, […]

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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.