What is the most important next step in the development of tfhe Smart Grid? What kind of “shovel-ready” projects can the Smart Grid produce? What role should the federal government play? To answer these and other questions, we created this thought leadership gallery that brings together a dozen of the best and brightest players in the Smart Grid world to assess the economic impact of electricity network improvements as well as the next-generation developments and innovations worth watching in this area.

Smart Grid standards are on the fast track. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a host of other players are coming together to seek the common good. But if you think that private patent rights won’t have much impact on this effort, or that patents will be swept aside or deactivated, think again. In fact, patent rights will create challenges to making the Smart Grid a reality. This article makes the case for a broad understanding of “open standards” as including technologies open to all via royalty-bearing reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) licensing.

A table showing states that have some form of revenue decoupling program, either approved or pending, as of February 2009. Data is organized by state and includes notes on the status of each.

A table of utility-scale deployment of smart meters in the United States as of February 2009, showing the utility name, state, and number of meters deployed, as well as comments on each project. The map appears to show metering rollouts of investor-owned utilities (IOU) and may not include coops or municipals.

Electric power has always been crucially important, but going forward it will have an even larger role to play in the health of this nation and ultimately the health of every nation. To meet the enormous challenges ahead — climate change, peak oil, rising costs, aging infrastructure — we need to recognize our dependence on electricity, rethink the role of electric power, and remake the electric power infrastructure as an engine of innovation and prosperity. In this 2009 presentation to the National Smart Grid Conference, Jesse Berst explains how to apply the four principles of patterns, profits, platforms, and policies to move ahead to the future we want to create.