Smart Grid Market Growth: Gaps Remain Say Utility Professionals

A new study of utilities' perspectives on the Smart Grid market offers some startling observations. The study, conducted by Transmission & Distribution World magazine and sponsor S&C Electric Company, says utility professionals are much more concerned about the grid's overall reliability and efficiency — and communications technologies — than about anything else. And, they're saying government policy makers are "undercommitted" to the Smart Grid. Get the details here.

Quick Take: The smart grid market is accelerating, but gaps remain that could stall its progress. That's the message between the lines of this just-released survey. Read for yourself, but here are some of the points we noticed:

• "Consumer empowerment" gets the press, but utility pros say reliability and efficiency are the top benefits, not consumer benefits
• In a related finding, home automation ranked at the bottom of important technologies according to utility professionals (with communications and cyber security at the top)
• Smart meters get much of the funding, yet respondents put them fourth on the list of needed technologies; what's more, two thirds of them think smart meters will fail to live up to their promise because of poor infrastructure

In a nutshell, then, according to many utility professionals we may have our priorities regarding the Smart Grid market confused... an issue that could come back to haunt us when regulators and consumers begin to "audit" the Smart Grid for cost-effectiveness. What do you think? We’d be interested in seeing your thoughts in the Talk Back section below.

Related SGN resources ...

Smart Grid Markets and Pricing

Are Utilities and Customers Holding Up the Smart Grid?

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