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By Jesse Berst

John McDonald is Director of Technology Strategy, Policy, and Standards for General Electric Digital Energy. He also plays important roles at IEEE and NIST.

Although I sometimes complain about GE's inability to pull its technology together into a coherent story, I've been very impressed with the company's work on the standards front. GE actively campaigns for and contributes to virtually every standards effort that relates to the smart grid.

As I learned during a recent video interview with John (see below), GE is applying some of the lessons from the standards world to its own internal operations. Just as standards groups need regular meetings to enforce collaboration, so too has GE adopted a "regular rhythm" for cross-pollination between different parts of the business.

During our talk, John also confirmed that GE thinks the next smart grid wave will be grid optimization and efficiency. Take a listen for yourself.

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0:00 John predicts that 2011 will see a big shift away from smart meters and towards distribution system efficiency and reliability.

0:50 He talks about the quandary that faces many utilities – whether or not to deploy technology before all the standards are in place.

1:20 John explains the increased interest in distribution automation. The business case and the technology have been in place for years, he claims. But only recently have we had the communications piece.

2:20 He discusses how to effectively leverage communications infrastructure for multiple applications.

2:50 The regulatory obstacles that still stand in the way, including the need for decoupled rates to make it less painful for utilities to implement voltage optimization.

3:50 John cites AEP as an example of a utility doing a great job with it smart grid initiatives. He also highlights some of AEP's challenges, including the need to have 11 different approaches for the 11 different states in which it operates.

5:30 John shares his personal focus this year and then talks about GE's efforts to create more synergy within the company, including the techniques that make it work.

7:10 John's opinion of GE's biggest challenge for the next year.

7:50 And his opinion of the industry's biggest hurdle.

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.

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