Where’s Waldo? Searching for the customer in the Smart Grid Dialog
- Aug 12, 2010
- David Shepheard
A few weeks ago I attended the inaugural Distribution Technology and Innovation Summit (DTI) in Las Vegas. The focus of the conference was on the current state of the Smart Grid market with presentations from utilities, trade groups, and state and federal regulators. In the meetings and social receptions, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone who was talking about DOE funding, state regulatory approval and Smart Grid project “definitization”. For those of you new to the term (as I was up until a few weeks ago), definitization is the term the government uses to mean that a contract has been finalized and approved and in this case that the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) stimulus funds can begin being disbursed to cover approved project expenditures. Until a project has been definitized, the awards amount to nothing more than monopoly money. (more...)