Intelligent Utility Jan-Feb 2013

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WWW.INTELLIGENTUTILITY.COM /// JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 DRAWING THE LINE 4 Face facts: The smart grid will never be finished WHEN THINGS ARE DIFFICULT AND COMPLICATED, WE OFTEN JUST WANT THEM to be over. In school, it was the next big test. At work, it’s the annual reviews or the large, complicated, interdepartmental projects. We try to think out all the steps to the final outcome, all the ways to get to the end a little bit faster. We want to be finished. We’re list makers and list finishers. And nothing feels quite so good as marking an item off the list. Done. Finished. We think this way around technology as well. Pat Gallagher, the director of the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) faced this very human, very American desire for completion in the smart grid arena. At Grid-Interop 2012, he told the story of a regulator asking him, a few months into the gig, when this smart grid stuff would all be finished. And he said, after a bit of a pause, “Never.” The smart grid isn’t a test. It isn’t a review or a project. It isn’t a new technology we can choose to learn (or not learn, as the case may be). As the diet books all also proclaim, it’s a lifestyle change. Or, to quote REM, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.” (But, don’t worry, you’ll feel fine.) The smart grid can’t be over because it’s not finite. It’s organic and not pre-planned. It’s amorphous and not fully formed. It’s porous and not solid. When we started introducing smart grid technology into utilities, we may have been working under the delusion that there was an end in sight: when all the smart meters are in, when we switch from paper maps to GIS, when we get a better handle on outage management. But, the truth is: Smart grid grows. We start to realize interconnections that we never saw before, ways to use information and data that are new and useful, updates that weren’t possible five years ago. Some of these smart grid “growth spurts” are discussed in this issue. We look at how GIS has pushed into other networks for cooperatives. We examine the lessons smart grid can learn from Sandy. We explore standards, IT and customer service innovations that are interconnected. And, we look at how utilities will continue the smart grid push into other systems. It is now all interconnected, and it is now all smart grid. And, those growth spurts will not stop anytime soon. So, no more talk of finished. Instead, let’s talk options, lessons, new concepts. Now, read all about it so you can cross that item off your to-do list, at least. Kathleen Wolf Davis Editor-in-Chief, Intelligent Utility magazine kdavis@energycentral.com Enjoy the issue? Then subscribe for free at www.intelligentutility.com/ subscribe
Smart grid projects can be deceiving. The ultimate Smart Grid vision portrayed by many still remains nothing but a panacea. If you are interested in a practical, pragmatic vision of the Smart Grid and need your vision successfully realized, make us your partner. If you want results instead of reports or marketing campaigns and want a Smart Grid strategy which is sustainable both post implementation and year after year, make us your partner. We’ll help you plan and execute a realistic yet sensible vision of your Smart Grid strategy beyond smart meters and data warehouses, articles, press releases, commercials, speeches and odd partnerships. Join the large number of utilities who, with our help, are quietly and solidly realizing their true Smart Grid vision. We’ll help you navigate the unforseen. osii.com © 2013 Open Systems International, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Intelligent Utility Jan-Feb 2013

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