TOP TEN SMART GRID TRENDS

Top 10 Smart Grid Market Trends To Watch This Year
18 March 2012 (Renew Grid)

"…[U]tilities have been focused on getting smart meters into the field. Federal stimulus money has largely fueled this effort in the U.S., but that money is drying up…Approximately 200 million smart meters have been deployed worldwide, and 40 million of those are now installed at locations in North America, according to Pike Research…

"…1. Smart meters will shift from deployment to applications…2. Dynamic-pricing debates will escalate…3. "Architecture" will be the new buzzword……4. Cybersecurity failure risks will be nearly inevitable…5. Consumer backlash will not go away…"

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"6. Distribution automation and AMI will intersect…7. Microgrids will move from curiosity to a reality…8. The freeze on HANs will thaw…9. Asia Pacific smart grid adoption will accelerate even more…10. Stimulus investments will bear mixed fruit…

"A total of $4.5 billion was invested into the broad umbrella of the smart grid under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)…[S]timulus funds deployed on behalf of the smart grid have, in some cases, been frittered away on poorly designed rollouts of smart meters and AMI…[T]he Obama administration's stimulus spending on smart grid upgrades raised expectations to unrealistic heights...[and] utilities focused too much on the benefits meter data might bring to their own operations - and forgot to connect the dots with consumers…Rushed smart meter deployments - realized perhaps ahead of the standards maturity curve - are likely to be questioned for a long time."