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Smart Grid Futures: Why Failing to Create a Shared Long-Term Vision Is Already Costing Us By Jesse Berst May 25, 2010 - 3:42:29 PM
In my keynotes recently, I've been asking audiences to give more attention to the long-term future of the Smart Grid. I strongly believe we need to craft a shared vision of the world we want to create. Our failure to paint a clear picture is costing us time, money, and support.
If I had to choose one phrase to describe that future, I would say "end-to-end network." The grid of 2030 will be a machine-to-machine (M2M) world, extending from generation to transmission to distribution and all the way down to the devices in homes, offices and factories.
To what purpose are we building out an end-to-end network? That's the important question that we are failing to address. We are not spending enough time to envision the game-changing applications we could build on top of a transformed infrastructure. Because of this lack of imagination, we are undoubtedly:
· Making mistakes in our first-generation Smart Grid architecture through our failure to understand our final destination. As Yogi Berra said “If you don't know where you're going, chances are you will end up somewhere else.”
· Leaving money on the table in terms of new applications and new businesses we could be building right now. Imagine if Apple had come out with the iPhone, but it never bothered to create a platform on which others could innovate.
· Failing to inspire the support we need from regulators, ratepayers and policymakers. On those rare occasions we even bother to tell them why they should care about the Smart Grid, we wave around a lot of sticks (fear of blackouts, emissions, higher rates) but offer few carrots (wonderful new applications, lifestyle benefits, energy security).
Perhaps we can learn to do a better job of imagining and then articulating a compelling future if we study good examples. One idea would be to visit Silicon Valley. Camp yourself in one of the hot-spot cafes or visit one of the cleantech events which take place every month or so. I typically hear more exciting Smart Grid ideas in a day in Silicon Valley than in a month visiting other venues. The Valley crowd combines imagination with a real sense of urgency.
Other examples:
Masdar City has to be the planet’s most thorough and comprehensive vision of a new energy future. Not surprisingly, smart infrastructure is at the very heart, including Smart Grid, smart transport, smart generation, complete connectivity and much more.
Duke Energy’s Envision Center, which I recently toured, is the best thing I've seen so far in the U.S. Yet even this admirable example (pictured below) only looks about five years ahead.
Smart Energy Envision Center description by KEMA
A word and pictures tour of the Envision Center by Soapbox Cincinnati
Duke Energy Envisions Smart Energy (video)
Microsoft's Home of the Future makes only a few token nods towards home energy management, but at least it stretches the imagination and creates a sense of the world we could move into.
I’ve also seen encouraging signs at Centerpoint Energy and Austin Energy, both in Texas. In Malta’s Smart Island initiative. And in Amsterdam’s Smart City project, which I am scheduled to see in person shortly.
We can’t compel policymakers and the public to support the Smart Grid. But we can impel them toward it by painting a picture of a future in which the Smart Grid enables a world of cleaner, cheaper, greener power plus a world of exciting new energy applications with lifestyle benefits.
In part two of this series, I'll be back to suggest a few of the ultra-cool applications we might build on top of that future grid. For now I’d like to hear your thoughts on this futures thing. Use the Talk Back form below to tell us what we should be putting in our long-term vision of the Smart Grid.
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Why Today's Utilities May Soon Be Obsolete (and What May Replace Them)
National Grid Proposes Central New York Pilot Program for the Energy Grid of the Future (press release/pdf)
The Smart Grid Vision from Cisco (video)
Smart Grid Technologies of Tomorrow Get DOE Funding
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