How long before smart grid technology becomes as ubiquitous as cell phone technology?
I think that’s a great question. Apart from the speed of penetration, many see strong parallels between the revolution that transformed the telecom business and what is now happening in the electric power business. One part of this is that the future of this business will—mark my words—not be in selling a commodity to the end customer, but rather in providing and marketing a bundle of services. Just as we no longer consider cents per minute with our calling plans, but instead pay a monthly rate that gives us a certain amount of total minutes, text messages, and data, it looks like the future of electricity will be in bundling energy services together. In five to ten years, we will no longer buy electricity based on kilowatt hours, but rather purchase a capped amount (with penalties for going over) combined with new services and applications, such as demand response (where you receive financial rewards for reducing consumption on demand during peak hours, which, by the way, your smart a
