A smart grid is a transactive grid.
- Lynne Kiesling
Don’t Blame Water Markets for Trouble With Western Rivers

Via Water Deeply, commentary on the potential that water markets have when it comes to protecting the West’s rivers: As Western states grapple with the best way to allocate dwindling water resources to meet multiple needs, water markets have emerged as one tool. But the idea is not without critics, such as Gary Wockner, who […]

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China: Water Tax Promotes Water Saving

Via China Daily, a look at the power of financial incentives on water savings: Hebei, the province neighboring Beijing, has seen more water saved since it started to levy a tax on water resources about a year ago. The province replaced water fees with the country’s first pilot region for charging a water tax in […]

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Instead Of Buying Electricity From The Power Company, What If You Bought It From Your Neighbor?

Via Fast Company, a report on a Dutch company linking home energy producers with consumers wanting clean energy: In the Netherlands, a marketplace called Power Peers is linking up home energy producers with consumers wanting clean energy. You can buy the solar power from your parents’ panels even if they live 200 miles away. You can buy […]

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The Potential For An Urban Water Market In Los Angeles And Beyond

Via the Brookings Institute, a look at how an urban water market might work in Los Angeles: Water infrastructure challenges are numerous and widespread across the country, from massive lead service line replacements needed in Michigan to combined sewer overflows in New Jerseyto resilience concerns in Louisiana. Since the country’s water infrastructure is so highly localized and fragmented – with […]

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Defining Grid 2.0

Via Greenbiz, an interesting look at the future of the smart grid, an interdisciplinary solution incorporating clean energy, clean transportation, zero waste, and fresh water: David Crane is banking on a fragile balancing act to see his company, power giant NRG Energy, through what he predicts will be an upheaval in the way electricity is generated, stored and purchased. The […]

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The Democratization Of Energy

Via Raconteur, an interesting look at how the success of the peer-to-peer economy, from Airbnb to Uber, paves the way for the democratisation and disintermediation of the energy market, aided by advances in technology: Technological developments are already blurring the line between producers, distributers and consumers. Companies are increasingly looking for opportunities to become power […]

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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.