All too often, I hear smart grid discussions started by someone suggesting that we really ought to come up with a definition for smart grids. Frankly, that makes me wonder how we ended up with so many people who claim to not know what smart grids are telling us what we should be doing about smart grids.

Seriously, if you don't know what smart grids are, either (a) be quiet and listen to those who do or (b) don't diminish what you do have to contribute to the discussion by highlighting what you don't understand about smart grids.

I think those still asking this question still see smart grids as a collection of disconnected energy applications. They know more about smart grids than they give themselves credit for. What they apparently lack is an understanding of the critical underlying role that utilities' information communications networks play in knitting these disparate pieces together.

Smart grids are energy grids that have been upgraded through the introduction of intelligent communications networks. The level of intelligence ("smarts," if you will) in these grids is measured not in the amount of technology deployed, but in the value of the applications run over these advanced communications networks. The list of the benefits delivered by smart grids runs the gamut from energy conservation to outage awareness, from incorporation of renewable energy resources to improved grid maintenance, from enabling critical peak pricing to faster disaster restoration. In defense of those who like to keep asking what smart grids are, I think what they are really groping for are the smart grids' "killer applications." Email was the killer app for IT networks and the internet. Smart grids' killer app or apps have probably not been invented or recognized yet.

It may seem like we've been in the midst of smart grids for years, but in reality we are just at the dawn of smart grids. If you think we have made dramatic changes up to this point, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Even more amazing advances are yet to come over the next decade. Smart meters have led the way for years, but state regulators seem to be questioning investments at the edge of the grid as greater value is found up the grid from substations. Hurdles like this are just a symptom of the evolutionary stage we are in. The truth is that there is enormous value in smart grids everywhere in the grid. The path to the realization of all that value is still gingerly revealing itself.

For now, we serve ourselves best by understanding that smart grids are communications networks--companion ICT grids, if you will--that enable a wide variety of value-delivering applications that will transform, not only the energy industry, but fundamentally the way we all live.

PREVIEW of President's Column to be published in September 2010 Special Smart Grid Edition of the UTC JOURNAL.