By Jesse Berst

 

Many of us thought the stimulus money that went to smart grid projects would establish a firm basis for further progress. The funds would build out enough examples and create enough lessons learned that other utilities could follow along with confidence.

 

But lately we are hearing that utilities are growing more cautious, not less. To be sure, the industry isn't getting much applause for its smart grid forays. PG&E customers are still complaining about smart meters. The city of Boulder told Xcel Energy "thanks for the smart grid, now get lost" when it voted to form a municipal utility. The governor of Illinois vetoed a smart grid bill citing, as one reason, his wish not to reward ComEd for its poor job with outages over the summer. The government of New Hampshire is asking FERC and NERC to investigate the state's utilities for their reliability failures in response to a freak October storm. And Connecticut is threatening "appropriate legislation" for the same reason.

 

Are you hearing and seeing evidence of a contraction? My friends who sell to the electric power industry say utilities are pulling their heads back into their shells. The utilities don't feel that regulators and the public have appreciated their attempts to modernize. So they are simply going to maintain the status quo until regulators tell them to do something different. Do you agree?

 

Join the discussion.

 

Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com. He consults to smart grid companies seeking market entry advice and M&A advisory. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the US and abroad, he also serves on the Advisory Council of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Energy & Environment directorate.