A smart grid is a transactive grid.
- Lynne Kiesling
Archive for July, 2013

Transactive Energy: The Next Big Deal for the Smart Grid?

Courtesy of The Energy Collective, another article on transactive energy – a new concept which sounds very much like smart markets to us… Transactive energy (TE) is a new hot topic in the energy industry, but what exactly is it? Frankly, it is a concept so new that it does not yet have a formal […]

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Is Residential Demand Response Hot? Or Is It Just Hot Outside?

Via The Energy Collective, some interesting commentary on residential demand response programs, interesting from the angle that – as usual – the author is framing her essay from the standpoint of rebates/incentives provided by the utility when – in our mind – a dynamic, peer to peer, demand response program in the form of a […]

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Can Transactive Energy Solve The Coming Crunch?

Via Worldwatch Institute, an interesting article on transactive energy which is defined as “…a means of using economic signals or incentives to engage all the intelligent devices in the power grid—from the consumer to the transmission system—to get a more optimal allocation of resources and engage demand in ways we haven’t been able to before.”  […]

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O(h No) power: Nudges Gone Wrong

Via Slate, an interesting look at on how Opower’s behavioral approach which is designed to reduce energy consumption actually persuaded some Republicans to consume more.  This is why financial incentives, smart markets, and transactive grids are the real future of inspiring reduced consumption: It’s a sad statistical reality: Half of us are below average. But […]

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The Disruptive Possibilities of Microgrids

Via Energy Collective, an interesting article on microgrids and the possibility that they can disrupt and disintermediate the utilities of today, just like what happened to the phone companies decades ago: The past two decades of telecommunications history can serve to illustrate trends and develop insights that apply to electric grid modernization – the evolution […]

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Economic Demand Response: Edging Closer to Smart Markets

Courtesy of MIT’s Technology Review, an interesting look at economic demand response in which companies can effectively bid their power reductions into the energy markets—either in real time or for the following day–whenever they want and earn money from it.  Starting to sound very close to smart markets… The off switch is a fast-growing source […]

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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.