New Baby

What does New Born and Smart Grid have in common? I find myself puzzled with this random question on a bright Saturday morning.

Baby has been keeping Dan and I entertained all night long with a great set of lungs and now she seems to be in a less energetic state of coma, after a nice diaper change, lotion treatment and solid feeding. Basically we figure it is a matter of factor elimination, following our engineering train of thoughts, eliminating all the factors that could cause her discomfort and eliminate them one by one.

Smart Grid is an equally fussy area that deserves much attention in its infancy stage. Lots of financial investments and human capital has gone into it, many trial and errors later we might be seeing trends that could work, but like babies, not all smart grid solutions would work the same way, state and government regulations, geographic traits that impact infrastructure deployment (think Boulder, there is a reason for it to be called that), customer demographics, needs, attitudes, utility's operating philosophy and vision toward Smart Grid, etc. These all influence how a smart grid solution will be formulated and executed upon.

It is easier talking than executing. Baby is waking up, I need to run and improvise again.

Boppy

My dear friend is going away from Denver to Bentonville Arkansas, with her husband and two young kids. I won't be able to see them very often any more because Walmart is not likely to hire consultants.

Consultants and emerging players are a major force behind Smart Grid - the field is exploding with new solutions, new ideas, technology, challenges that no one has dealt with before end to end. Consultants and start up companies such as Control 4, Grid Point, Silversprings, etc are propellers behind the change and are critical to provide various components of the solution. It is a fast changing environment where inter-operatability doesn't exist due to the lack of the standards, but innovation is created and cultivated exactly such an environment where competing technologies and solutions will find the appropriate places in the value chain to survive and thrive.

Saturday's Thoughts

Walking on the hiking trail in the mornings is the most beautiful thing, showy downiniga blossoming everywhere, fresh oak leaves remind you the smell of the nature, birds chirping cheerfully to welcome the hikers on the road...is nature so sophisticated that's beyond our imagination or is it so elegantly simple that remind us to slow down and smell the roses once in a while.

Increasingly folks are interested in environmental issues, for a variety of reasons including jobs creation, stimulus funding, to the ultraistics who simply want to save the environment. How fast will this wave of fad catch on or fade away, is this the train that will pull the world out of the recession, what’s your role in this evolution, and what are the economically viable solutions that will help balance the needs between shareholders and environment, and people?

No, I don’t believe this is a fad, it is here to stay. Those who lead the thinking and more importantly, execute on their beliefs will find the right role to play. It is those who stand by and watch that will be left in the dust one day and tell the hindsight 20-20 story that how they have cleverly stayed out of another bubble.