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Electricity - Novelty to Addiction

The availability of cheap affordable electricity has been one of the great enablers of global productivity and prosperity in modern times. In the developed world we take it for granted with little or no thought as to how it is delivered or what it costs since it has been relatively cheap and abundant. This has led to a remarkable dependency. In the last 100 years without really noticing, electricity as a product has progressed from novelty to necessity to addiction. We are completely dependent on electricity to function - its abundance and low cost has resulted in the electrification of virtually every aspect of our lives. This trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

There is a problem with our addiction to electricity - to meet future demand with solutions from the past is fundamentally unsustainable. We now have converging issues such as climate change response, peak demand management, energy security and developing world electrification which are driving changes to the traditional models of generation and distribution of electricity. There is a need to be cleaner and more efficient, to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels and to improve our delivery infrastructure utilisation. To do this you need a Smart Grid.


Comments

"Electricity customers expect that ENERGEX will plan, build and maintain an electricity network to meet this rising demand, but it is also incumbent on organisations to adopt financially and environmentally sustainable business practices to reduce where possible the impact on network electricity prices."
Terry Effeney Energex CEO Media release 17 July 2009

" The utility industry is fast approaching a tipping point beyond which consumers can and increasingly will demand equal footing with their providers. Those utilities that are fully prepared to share responsibility with their customer and help them meet their specific energy goals will have a significant competitive advantage.

Consumer needs and roles are expanding, influenced to a large extent by the part consumers are now playing in other industries like media and entertainment. For utilities, this means revisiting long-held beliefs about how best to serve customers and making fundamental changes to their strategies and operations in preparation for a more participatory market.

Climate change concerns, technology advances and consumer involvement are the key factors driving the industry towards this new environment. Collectively these drivers are overturning traditional assumptions about energy consumers and the fundamental value proposition of the industry itself. Though each of these trends has progressed independently for a time, they have all new reached a point of convergence where each is fuelling the others and the entire combination is catalytic."
IBM Plugging in the Consumer 2007