In the years after Edison brought forth Electricity 1.0, we continued to invent new ways to harness electricity to improve comfort, convenience and connectedness. Now as we move toward Electricity 2.0, the challenge is to combine updated technology with updated policy to enable not only better living, but better working as well. That's because Electricity 2.0 is directly tied to commerce and global competitiveness - and in this first segment of our new Electronomics series we'll explore the very interesting path that got us here.

It's not news it will cost a lot of money to build a smart grid that provides the secure, reliable and sustainable energy network we envision. But the economic benefits anticipated by a NIST expert might surprise you.

We've written about the need for a better utility business model time and again. And we're certainly not alone in thinking the status quo is flawed. So we were pleased to see that Maryland's governor has put a Utility 2.0 pilot on the fast track. Click to see how you can participate.

In a recent guest editorial, consultant Paul Alvarez made some compelling arguments for switching to performance-based regulation of investor-owned utilities' smart grid investments. He's returned to address the next logical question - how to design cost recovery risks and rewards in that brave new world.

Filmed at the Edison Foundation/Institute for Electric Efficiency's Powering the People 2.0 conference in Washington, D.C. on March 22, 2012, this video features Smart Grid News Founding Editor and Chief Analyst Jesse Berst interviewing IEE Executive Director Lisa Wood about the conference's purpose and major takeaways.

One of the most thought-provoking speeches at this year's Accenture International Utilities and Energy Conference came from Google's Michael Lock. He offered a sneak peek at what's coming that will revolutionize the business world - and reasons why the electric power industry can't isolate itself from this next phase.

To date, the smart grid revolution has been mostly about technology. Going forward, it will increasingly be about new policies and new business models. But unless they change their attitude (and their aim), most utilities will have that new future imposed on them - and will probably be very unhappy with the result. Find out why.

Ironically, utility CEOs understand how technology change has turned other industries upside down -- telecommunications, retailing, music, newspapers, photography, etc. etc. Yet they seem to feel the electric power industry is somehow immune. They aren't asking the question that should be top of mind as new smart grid technologies turn their business upside down.

After dozens of interviews with utility CEOs and CIOs and attendance at five separate "future of the smart grid" workshops, we've culled from those executives and experts nine predictions about the forces that will be driving the smart grid's future, from choosy consumers and multiplying market choices to deepening jurisdictional tensions.

There are strong disagreements among experts in the smart grid industry about what will happen when, and what it will mean. But there's also violent agreement on at least five trends, including the technologies that will shift the landscape most dramatically.

What will the smart grid look like 25 years from now – and what paths will we take to get there? Click for a futuristic look at the three phases that will likely occur, albeit in different times in different places, as electric utilities roll out smart grid technologies.

Utilities are about to see dramatic pressures and changes, yet many utility executives are not preparing for the likelihood that the utility business model as they know it will undergo a significant transformation. Click for details on the three phases many experts believe utility business models will pass through during this transformation.

Consumers' appetite for value-added energy services – from consumption controls to demand response programs to green energy - will grow stronger over the next decade. As those services become more widespread and well-known, they will come to expect them from every utility. Find out why it is so important for utilities to proactively decide where they want to be on the "volume-to-value continuum."

We've talked about the "volume-to-value continuum" as a metaphor to help utilities prepare for the future and decide which role they will play as smart grid technologies force new business models to emerge. Click for a deep dive on what choosing the infrastructure - role providing commodity electrons - might look like.

Introduction of smart grid technologies will increasingly lead to consumer demand for value-add energy services from their utilities. That means utilities must proactively decide what role they want to play in that new world. As described in this segment of our Electronomics series, one choice will be an intermediary role where the utility aligns with partners to offer its customers new options.