A smart grid is a transactive grid.
- Lynne Kiesling
Archive for May, 2009

The PowerMeter: One Utility’s Take

Via Earth2Tech, an interesting commentary providing one utility’s take on Google’s PowerMeter initiative and surprisingly refreshing acknowledgement of the fact that utilities will have to embrace the Web 2.0 world of shared data, customer access, etc. “The news that utilities like San Diego Gas & Electric and incumbent meter maker Itron will be offering Google’s […]

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Smart Grid Software Market: Oracle Jumps In

Courtesy of Earth2Tech, a report on Oracle’s entry into the smart grid software market, plus an update on several start ups already plying the space such as eMeter and Ecologic Analytics.  As the article notes: “…Companies building smart meters and the network infrastructure that allows them to communicate back to electric utilities generate most of […]

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Google’s PowerMeter Powers Up

Courtesy of Earth2Tech, an update on Google’s PowerMeter initiative.  As the article notes: Some utilities have indicated to us that they’ve been uncomfortable with the fact that Google is building software and web tools for energy management and smart meters called PowerMeter. In their eyes Google’s strong brand could dominate their relationship with the customer. […]

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The Electricity Economy

Via Green Tech Media, an interesting report on Cisco’s intentions to provide “an end-to-end, highly secure network infrastructure solution” for the Smart Grid and everything it touches.   As the article notes: “…Cisco’s strategy is to ensure that there is one, consistent, IP-based infrastructure for the electric power industry – a standards-based foundation that will ultimately […]

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Smart Grids: Where Information & Data Flows As Easily As Water & Electricity

Via The Financial Times, an interesting article on the convergence of information technology (IT) and utilities.  As the article notes: “…An unlikely marriage is being consummated. On one side is a monolithic industry, cautious, highly regulated and focused on ubiquity, reliability and affordability. On the other is an aggressively competitive sector with rapid product cycles […]

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Smart Grids and Distributed Capitalism

Via The Energy Collective, an interesting article on Economist Jeremy Rifkin’s plans to simultaneously solve the economic and energy crises via a pan-European strategy of small-scale energy generation and smart energy grids that make everyone a partner in energy.  As the article notes: “…in Mr Rifkin’s grand plan, every citizen of the EU would participate […]

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About This Blog And Its Authors
Grid Unlocked is powered by two eco-preneurs who analyze and reference articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between smart meters, smart grids, and above all: smart markets.

Based on decades of experience and interest in conservation, Monty Simus believes that a truly “smart” grid must be a “transactive” grid, unshackled from its current status as a so-called “natural monopoly.”

In short, an unlocked grid must adopt and harness the power of markets to incentivize individual users, linked to each other on a large scale, who change consumptive behavior in creative ways that drive efficiency and bring equity to use of the planet's finite and increasingly scarce resources.