Today’s GreenBeat 2009 conference in San Mateo, California, brought together venture capitalists, analysts, electric utility executives and smart grid solutions suppliers under one roof to discuss issues of interest to them all: smart grid strategy, the consumer equation, investment, and what the future will bring.
As I write this, Al Gore is delivering the closing keynote discussing his visions for – and steps to achieve – what he refers to as a “Super Grid”. Much of his presentation I’ve heard before, discussed before, and written about before.
But there were dozens of sparkling gems and new thoughts presented throughout the course of today, as well. Like a kid in a candy store with a finite allowance to spend (in this case, the number of words I may write here), I scarcely know what to share first, and what to leave out. So, instead, I’ll offer a taste of everything I heard today that resonated with me. And then, over the course of my next few blogs, I’ll connect the dots, and build out the conversations spawned by the ideas presented today.
Vinod Khosla, a partner in Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm, cast in the role of the skeptic in a smart grid investment discussion: “I’m not skeptical about investing in the grid; I think there are some good opportunities….(but) let’s not get caught up in the hype of the smart grid. Hey, how much money is it going to save the consumer? Now that’s something I can buy. Opportunities have to be based on economic opportunity, not hype….Real value is new value for the consumer, or something that makes economic sense.”
A little more Khosla, for good measure: “Any time there’s an economic opportunity it’s followed by hype, which is followed by a bubble…the use of valuable technologies will not have a bubble.”
Steve Westly, of Westly Group, another venture capital firm, cast in the role of the optimist in the same discussion: “I am incredibly bullish on this space,” he said of the smart grid. “We’re ready to start funding….Will there be hype? Absolutely. Will tons of companies fail? Without a doubt. But there will be tons of opportunity.” Westly made it patently clear he was “open for business,” exhorting those in the audience no less than three times to approach him with their business plans. “This is a big business. Bring me your business plans.”
One more from Steve Westly, while we’re at it, because it was too good to leave out: “I want the U.S. to be ground zero for this innovation. I want to see bigger numbers, and I want to see everyone make a lot of money. But what I really want to see is the U.S., California, the Silicon Valley and somebody in this room who comes up with the application that changes the world….That’s how you change history.”
From Laura Ipsen, SVP Smart Grid for Cisco: “We need something like a different economics, like a gridonomics.” When asked about Cisco’s budget for smart grid, she said, “We’re going to invest what it takes to acquire, to partner, to invest.” Cisco’s door, she made very clear, was also open for business.
In the Politics and Policy discussion, Robert Gee, president of Gee Strategies, said he saw three different regulator camps. “There is one group of regulators who have embraced the idea of the smart grid (and) view smart grid technology as being an enabler….Then there is a second group, of about the same size, who I call the skeptics. They have not fully embraced the value, and are concerned about the cost/benefit ratio….And then there is the third, and probably the largest group, who are agnostic, but open-minded. They are waiting for demonstrable proof – they need more information.”
Looking to the future, Philip Mezey, SVP and COO for Itron, said, “We’re at the very beginning of what’s going to be a long journey.” Mezey also told the audience, “We think meters are the cash register of the utility – the touch point of the utility and the consumer.”
David Pacyna, SVP and general manager, NAFTA Transmission & Distribution, Siemens Energy: “By 2015, we’re going to see a lot of pilots moving into commercial play in high-voltage transmission and the roll out of distribution automation for a self-healing network.”
Sharon Allan, senior executive, North American Smart Grid Practice, Accenture: “Consumers buy on a value system….It’s going to have to be framed in a package so that it means something to them…at the end of the day, we’re still consumers, too. We need to back away and say, ‘would I buy that?’”
Those are but a few of today’s sparkling gems. Tomorrow, I’ll start connecting the dots in these conversations across important topics in the evolving intelligent utility.
Kate Rowland is managing editor of Intelligent Utility magazine.
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