The Six Most Important Smart Grid Trends

What are the most interesting and important Smart Grid trends today? We have an easy way to know. As the oldest and largest Smart Grid site, we get millions of visits each year from utility professionals. They comb through the archives to get the information to design and deploy their projects.   Simply by measuring which articles they are reading, we can get the pulse of what matters most to them right now. Below are the four topics that are currently at the top of the charts. And, as a bonus, we've listed two coming Smart Grid trends we predict will get hot in the months ahead.

According to our statistics, you are interested in:

Customer Engagement

Demand response and energy efficiency require long-term customer engagement, since they are based on long-term behavior changes. Other industries have mastered the sciences of customer segmentation, messaging, and engagement. Our industry has to get up to speed in a hurry or risk some embarrassing early failures. We’re planning a couple of things in the near future that will help with that; please stay tuned.

·         Blowback Attack: The Smart Grid’s Greatest Danger?

·         8 Not-So-Easy Steps Toward Consumer Acceptance

·         Smart Meter Paranoia: Could a Simple Toggle Switch Solve It?

·         An Apology from PG&E – and a New Paper on Meter Accuracy  

Data Management

Now that projects are starting to roll out at scale, many of you are faced with thousands of times more data than you have managed in the past. And, as you begin to add distribution automation and grid optimization, you also have to struggle with "complex event processing.” No wonder you are searching high and low for guidance.

·         Why Your Grid Is Already Smart (and How to Unlock its Data Treasure)

·         Video and Slides from the 'High Performance in Data Management' Webinar

·         SGN Meter Data Management Channel

Disruptive Technologies and Approaches

You realize that our industry is in the midst of an upheaval every bit as transformative as telecommunications in the 80s and 90s; or the Internet a decade later; or smart phones today. Game-changing technologies and (equally important) game-changing business models can pull the rug out from under established suppliers.

·         Why the Smart Metering Business Just Changed Forever

·         Smart Grid Demand Response: Why Today’s Leaders are at Risk as DR 2.0 Emerges

·         Cellular Emerges As Viable Communications Choice

Winners and Losers

You realize that finding the right supplier is about more than just technology. It is also about vendors who "get it" and who are out in front of Smart Grid trends. You understand that the Smart Grid is an ecosystem, so you want to know who's leading things and who’s connected. Some of your favorites:

·         The Smart Grid’s Three Most Powerful Women

·         Who’s Got the Clout: The Smart Grid’s Most Powerful Men

·         Readers Pick the Smart Grid Companies to Watch in 2010

And now for the bonus round. Based on our conversations with utilities and our briefings from leading vendors, here are two emerging Smart Grid trends:

Grid Optimization

Thanks to the smart meter-centric stimulus awards, many utilities have been focused on technologies at the edge. Now that they getting that infrastructure into place, they are turning more attention to the efficiency and reliability of the system itself. If carbon legislation passes, this trend will grow even more quickly, because system improvements are a terrific way to reduce emissions. If there is a price on carbon, it could create a revenue stream to utilities that can lessen their footprints through system optimization and efficiency.

·         Grid Optimization Channel

·         Smart Grid Optimization: The Next Wave?

·         CURRENT Group’s System Optimization Solution Suite Cited

Where Buildings Meet the Grid

We already have semi-smart buildings -- factories, office buildings and even a few homes with smart appliances. We are rapidly gaining a Smart Grid equipped with smart meters. Shouldn't the two be talking to each other? On SGN, we cover this growing trend in two places. The commercial and industrial side is in our building automation channel. The home energy management side is covered in our home area network channel.

·         Schneider Electric Reveals Ambitious Plans to Create Virtual Power Plants

·         The Smart Home in 2010: From PowerPoints to Pilots

·         SGN Building Automation Channel

·         SGN Home Area Networks Channel

What important Smart Grid trends did we leave out? Use the comment form to let the rest of us know.

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