Leader or follower developing the smart grid business case

A world of energy developments are coming together right now with consequences that we will all feel for generations to come. World energy consumption is forecast to triple by 2050. Climate change has become more fact than fiction. Our nation's energy security is vulnerable due to our current dependence on finite natural resources for energy generation. We are in a time of fundamental change in the utility industry, and we must make decisions as significant as those wrestled over by Edison and Westinghouse as they debated dc versus ac power distribution. We have the technology, and market forces are converging to fundamentally change the way the grid operates to improve efficiency, reliability, and energy security. © 2006 IEEE.