By: SGN Staff

Here’s an interesting finding for vendors and utilities alike. New research from Pacific Crest Securities reveals that demand response and peak shaving have jumped to the top of the list as drivers of Smart Grid implementation at North American utilities.

(Pacific Crest is admitting a few more qualified professionals onto their panel. Participants get remuneration plus access to the full survey results. See below for details.)

As part of a larger survey conducted in partnership with Smart Grid News, participants were asked: "Which of the following are the top factors driving demand for smart grid projects at your utility?” They were then asked to select the first, second and third most important drivers from a list of eight possibilities. The choices included labor savings, deferred construction and reliability among others.

To create the rankings, Pacific Crest assigned 3 points to first, 2 points to second, and 1 point to third. The chart below shows the results.

Labor savings, once the leading reason for smart meters and other Smart Grid initiatives, has dropped to sixth place. Demand response, which has garnered tremendous attention from both press and policymakers, is now the top driver, followed by reliability and deferred construction.

The Pacific Crest Research Program

Pacific Crest is often cited as the preeminent investment bank focused solely on technology. It has climbed to that point through extensive, concentrated research on behalf of leading institutional investors, venture capitalists and technology companies.

Smart Grid News has partnered with Pacific Crest Mosaic, a newly formed service that gives investors access to insight from multiple independent sources. Specifically, Pacific Crest Mosaic has developed independent research tools focused on the Clean Technology and Smart Grid markets to help its clients navigate investment opportunities.

Pacific Crest Mosaic is accepting a few additional participants in the Smart Grid program. It is seeking industry experts who have specific insight on the decision making process around utility deployments. Likely candidates would include:

·         CTOs of private MDM and AMI companies

·         Smart Grid technology decision makers at North American utilities

Participation can take two forms: 1) completing a brief survey each quarter and 2) attending expenses-paid conferences to talk one-on-one with investors about Smart Grid technology trends and accepting occasional one-on-one phone calls for an hourly fee.

In addition to monetary remuneration, participants gain access to proprietary results from each smart grid survey along with insight on the issues that matter most to institutional investors.  The upcoming surveys will provide leading indicators for Smart Grid technology trends from a representative group of your peers at major North American utilities. Insight from institutional investors provides a better understanding of the important drivers and barriers being evaluated from the investor’s perspective.

Note: SGN Founding Editor Jesse Berst is a member of Pacific Crest’s Mosaic Network.

   Email Pacific Crest’s Jeffrey Cramer to inquire about participation