A smart grid is a transactive grid.
- Lynne Kiesling
Archive for June, 2011

Will Utilities Thrive as Trusted Advisors or Survive as Infrastructure?

A recent article in the Smart Grid library asked whether utilities will thrive as trusted advisors or survive as infrastructure?  I think this is a particularly interesting article as I have long wondered whether utilities will become the “banks” of the future, i.e. slow moving but necessary parts of the economy, or more like “Fidelities” […]

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PowerMeter RIP

Home management has proved a vexing problem for vendors. Utilities, vendors and appliance makers all want to lower household energy consumption. But it has been a struggle to keep consumers engaged or to get them to spend the time and money to integrate an automation system.  We have long argued that transactive capabilities will make […]

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Will Gamification be the Biggest Smart Grid Game Changer? No.

Via the Smart Grid Library, another article on the potential impact that gamification may play in educating, enlightening, and engaging consumers.  As mentioned previously, we find this to be an interesting trend but believe that smart markets – especially the opportunity for consumers to own and trade their power and water resources for cash – […]

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Smart Markets And Other Consumer Enablers: Embedding Social Media And Gamification Into Utility Companies

Via GreenMonk, a very interesting article and presentation on how utility companies will need to use gamification and competitions to pique customers’ interest in energy savings and to keep their engagement levels high.  We support this view and further believe that smart (i.e. transactive) markets will be needed as well to further support FourSquare-like principles […]

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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.