Today at the conference, everyone’s broken out into small groups and are having more free-form discussions. Consequently, it’s somewhat more difficult to summarize. I’m hanging out for the day in the “State of the Union in Renewables + Smart Grid” room. I’ll try to pass along insights as they drift by.
For now, there’s some fairly animated discussion going on about just what a "smart grid" is and how to talk about it with customers, utilities, regulators, etc. There’s some worry that the highfalutin’ way energy wonks tend to talk about this might scare people off. "A grid that’s smart and self-aware? It uses my hybrid? It adjusts my appliances? Scary!"
