Wednesday, February 22, 2012

• Electronomics: Reinventing electricity
  In the years after Edison brought forth Electricity 1.0, we continued to invent new ways to harness electricity to improve comfort, convenience and connectedness. Now as we move toward Electricity 2.0, the challenge is to combine updated technology with updated policy to enable not only better living, but better working as well. That's because Electricity 2.0 is directly tied to commerce and global competitiveness - and in this first segment of our new Electronomics series we'll explore the very interesting path that got us here.
  
• Electronomics: Why utilities must invent their own future
  To date, the smart grid revolution has been mostly about technology. Going forward, it will increasingly be about new policies and new business models. But unless they change their attitude (and their aim), most utilities will have that new future imposed on them - and will probably be very unhappy with the result. Find out why.
  
• Why utility CEOs are asking the wrong question (and what they should ask instead)
  Ironically, utility CEOs understand how technology change has turned other industries upside down -- telecommunications, retailing, music, newspapers, photography, etc. etc. Yet they seem to feel the electric power industry is somehow immune. They aren't asking the question that should be top of mind as new smart grid technologies turn their business upside down.
  
• 9 things we already know about the smart grid's future
  After dozens of interviews with utility CEOs and CIOs and attendance at five separate "future of the smart grid" workshops, we've culled from those executives and experts nine predictions about the forces that will be driving the smart grid's future, from choosy consumers and multiplying market choices to deepening jurisdictional tensions.
  
• When not whether: 5 unstoppable smart grid trends
  There are strong disagreements among experts in the smart grid industry about what will happen when, and what it will mean. But there's also violent agreement on at least five trends, including the technologies that will shift the landscape most dramatically.
  
• The 3 phases of the smart grid's technology future
  What will the smart grid look like 25 years from now – and what paths will we take to get there? Click for a futuristic look at the three phases that will likely occur, albeit in different times in different places, as electric utilities roll out smart grid technologies.
  
• New utility business models: Experts predict the 3 stages of our evolution
  Utilities are about to see dramatic pressures and changes, yet many utility executives are not preparing for the likelihood that the utility business model as they know it will undergo a significant transformation. Click for details on the three phases many experts believe utility business models will pass through during this transformation.
  
• From volume to value: Why utilities MUST change their business model (and one way to get started)
  Consumers' appetite for value-added energy services – from consumption controls to demand response programs to green energy - will grow stronger over the next decade. As those services become more widespread and well-known, they will come to expect them from every utility. Find out why it is so important for utilities to proactively decide where they want to be on the "volume-to-value continuum."
  
• Future of electric power: Why some utilities will evolve into a "wires-only" infrastructure role
  We've talked about the "volume-to-value continuum" as a metaphor to help utilities prepare for the future and decide which role they will play as smart grid technologies force new business models to emerge. Click for a deep dive on what choosing the infrastructure - role providing commodity electrons - might look like.
  
• Future of electric power: How utilities can succeed in the intermediary role
  Introduction of smart grid technologies will increasingly lead to consumer demand for value-add energy services from their utilities. That means utilities must proactively decide what role they want to play in that new world. As described in this segment of our Electronomics series, one choice will be an intermediary role where the utility aligns with partners to offer its customers new options.