Smart Grid System Report | DOE

From the DOE news release:

As part of its efforts to inform Congress, energy stakeholders, and the public about smart grid efforts, the Department of Energy today released the first Smart Grid System Report, which examines the status of smart grid deployments nationwide and any regulatory or government barriers to continued deployment.  The report finds that while many smart grid capabilities are just beginning to emerge, the adoption of various technologies – such as smart metering, automated substation controls and distributed generation – is growing significantly.

The report also notes that smart grid capabilities are socially transformational and that to achieve broader deployment and implementation, we are likely to need larger cultural change. As with the Internet or cell phone communications, smart grid technologies have the potential to dramatically change how we experience electricity in the country, but improvements in physical and cyber security and information privacy will require consumers, manufacturers and utilities to closely follow a range of grid best practices. Read the full Smart Grid System Report.

From the Earth2Tech quarterly report on the cleantech sector:

The two primary issues hanging over the smart grid space continue to be energy storage and a lack of standards for interoperability. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is so far on-track to meet its ambitious September 2009 deadline to resolve the standards issue, and many industry watchers were relieved to see that the first batch of standards (released in second quarter) mirrored those that already dominate the industry. The energy storage problem is farther from a resolution, but a few promising startups emerged this quarter with potential solutions.