Smart grid technology sector could grow larger than the internet

April 23, 2:52 AMEnergy Policy ExaminerClifford Bryan

Smart grid technology is needed to connect electrical smart grid systems. According to the Electric Power Research Institute and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the total market size is approximately $200 billion spread over 10-15 years. Certain veteran observers within the technology space maintain that the Smart Grid represents an opportunity to technology providers larger than the internet.

Technology or service providers may recognize that technology won’t work in isolation. but rather, these technologies must work with other Smart Grid and legacy technologies. Depending on the technology, there must be work undertaken to interface with and understand the issues of utilities, consumer, and/or a service provider’s technology integrator. Technology providers should ensuring that a technology adds value for generators and consumers of electricity in the most efficient and economical manner possible.

Technology providers should in the near-term create a modernized electric infrastructure, which includes working with regulators to develop rules that support innovation and allow access to customers; encouraging market design that compensates consumers as they move from passive energy consumers to active providers; and helping to build a network ensuring that all stakeholders benefit over time…and as soon as possible. In the process, the nation can re-assert its global competitiveness and technologies and systems developed by companies will be replicated around the world.