Published May 21, 2012 in SmartGridNews.com:

Many smart grid roadmaps tell only part of the story

By Ian H. Rowlands

Roadmaps get high marks from technology specialists.

A technology roadmap usually provides valuable data and analysis on the current state of that particular technology as well as its expected future development.  A good roadmap can guide strategic efforts going forward and can catalyze progress.

In the smart grid world, roadmaps are becoming increasingly evident.

Smart grid roadmaps have been prepared at the sub-national level (California), at the national level (Ireland and Korea) and supra-nationally (the International Energy Agency).  Issue-specific areas have also been addressed by smart grid roadmaps - for instance, particular sectors (Ontario's Smart Home Roadmap) and particular approaches (NIST's Standards Roadmap).  The development of national smart grid roadmaps continues to be encouraged.

All of this is to be welcomed. The International Energy Agency, for instance, identified (see page 8) the following potential benefits of smart grid roadmap development:

• Increase understanding among a range of stakeholders of the nature, function, costs and benefits of smart grids
• Identify the most important actions required to develop smart grid technologies and policies that help to attain global energy and climate goals
• Develop pathways to follow and milestones to target based on regional conditions.

Viewed collectively, the roadmaps that have appeared to date point to some key defining characteristics with respect to a smart grid future:

• Technologies to facilitate deployment of diverse electricity generation sources, including renewables, and energy storage facilities
• Technologies to enable customer engagement with the smart grid (for example, automation networks and energy dashboards)
• Electrification of transportation
• Electrification of space and water conditioning (heating and cooling)

Anyone wanting a picture of what a transformed power system could well look like need only consult one of these roadmaps.  Ideas about how to get to that future are also on offer.

Where roadmaps fall short

While these efforts are to be welcomed for many reasons - not least of all, those identified above - it is nevertheless the case that many smart grid roadmaps also fall short in one important way:

With few exceptions, smart grid roadmaps do not look beyond the electricity space to see how the smart grid could integrate with other resource, infrastructure and commodity systems in the future.  In other words, they neglect the broader context, and they fail to think about the following:

• How electricity, heat and natural gas integration could lead to the development of smart energy networks
• How energy systems and water systems could be mutually supportive
• How information 'pipelines' could catalyse development of integrated resource, health and security ecosystems in both homes and workplaces

Perhaps it is not particularly surprising that smart grid roadmaps focus solely upon smart grids, given who the authors are. For the most part, power system professionals have taken the lead in preparing smart grid roadmaps; electricity is what they do, and they do it well.

Moreover, it is not the case that smart grids of the future should necessarily be visualised within any or all of these broader contexts.  However, by failing to address such possibilities, many smart grid roadmaps are limiting the discussion prematurely.  It is important to remember that roadmap exercises can be valuable in at least two ways:  not only catalysing discussion about the best path in the future, but also encouraging debate about the best destination for that path.

Ian H. Rowlands is a Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo and Associate Director (Global Initiatives) of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy.  He has research interests in smart grid policy issues, consumer engagement opportunities and sustainable energy strategies.

Read the original article here.