FERC vs NERC: A grid control showdown over cyber security

DRAWING THE LINE
WWW.INTELLIGENTUTILITY.COM /// JULY/AUGUST 2011
4
Overtaking the noise
I WAS IN SANTA CLARA, CALIF., IN LATE MAY TO PARTICIPATE IN A CONSUMER
symposium and to moderate a panel for ConnectivityWeek. I arrived there armed with
Benadryl (for heavy pollen) and empty notebooks (for heavy note-taking). I arrived home a few
days later with full notebooks and a head full of new ideas.
Since then, a suggestion made by one plenary speaker, Geoffrey Moore, has been challenging me.
Moore, a Silicon Valley-based high-technology consultant and author of
Crossing the Chasm and other books, opined that the smart grid has not
yet achieved escape velocity in order to “cross the chasm” to a volume
operations model.
“The volume operations model doesn’t kick in until there’s enough volume
for the operations model work and payoff,” Moore told us. “You’ve got
to play this game as a complex systems game ... for the foreseeable future.”
But it was something else Moore said that I’ve been thinking about since
I arrived back in the office.
“Identify the narrative that will take you to the next place. When the
narrative is clear enough, the signal overcomes the noise,” he said. “As
long as there is more noise than signal, the world will say, ‘Let’s wait
until next year.’”
Since its inception more than two-and-a-half years ago, Intelligent Utility
magazine has been working to identify the evolving narrative of the electric
utility industry and the smart grid. As projects and technology have
continued to evolve, so have the stories within our pages.
In this issue, we cover a gamut of issues and utility stories, all contributing
to the narrative that will take us, as an industry, to the next place.
My challenge to you, as a reader and participant in this evolving industry, is this:
Where is the electric utility industry now with respect to noise and signal? Has the signal overtaken
the noise? And, if not, what’s it going to take to get us there?
As always, I enjoy hearing from you, and appreciate your feedback.
Kate Rowland
Editor-in-Chief, Intelligent Utility magazine
krowland@energycentral.com
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