Can you remember a time before the internet? Those long-gone days when information gathering meant a day in a library or mass communication meant hundreds of letters. It’s hard to believe we ever managed to run businesses or social lives without it.

And now the energy markets are set for a similar, seismic transformation. The smart grid — aspects of which are powered by exactly the same technology that underpins the internet — will change the way we see energy provision forever.

Put very simply, the smart grid is a network that is differentiated from the existing grid through a number of improvements:

• It enables greater consumer participation thanks to two-way information about energy use and pricing incentives. This gives the motivation to change behaviours.
• It will help to incorporate greater levels of energy storage and distributed generation to help balance the disparities between supply and demand.
• It will be far more resilient as intelligent sensors throughout the grid will give us a much clearer picture of what is happening, so if one portion of the grid goes down the sensors will spot the incident and divert electricity from an alternative source to fill the gap.

More here.