Microsoft and Partners Ready as U.S. Stimulus Plan Includes $11 billion for Smart Grid Investments

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Last
month U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the “American Recovery and
Reinvestment” which included ‘nearly
$100 billion in clean energy projects.” The press materials said that “more
than $11 billion is included in the recovery to create a bigger, better,
smarter electric grid” and will “deploy 40 million ‘Smart Meters’ in American
homes, upgrading transmission and distribution technologies that have not
significantly changed in a half century.”

 

The
timing was impeccable as in late February Alstom
announced it will work with Microsoft to launch high performance solutions for
the power industry. The press release notes Alstom/Microsoft collaboration
in the areas of:

 

  • Research and development in IT and power generation control platforms,
    both for conventional and renewable energy 
  • Marketing of both companies’ products, including joint sales activities
    and communications programmes
  • Joint business initiatives to accelerate the integration of third-party
    software applications.

 

Clearly,
our partner Alstom is leading the way in innovative solutions for effecting
technologies that create the smart energy ecosystem of the future.

 

But we
are engaged in a number of Smart Grid initiatives, as discussed on these blog
pages.

 

 For
instance, our work with Itron
in the area of meter data management, announced earlier in the year is
another way that we are offering Microsoft solutions to the utility industry.

 

In all
our work with partners and utilities, we respect the fact that the Smart Grid
is an evolving concept. Right now, some in the industry are engaging in debates
to define the Smart Grid to fit their products and services. Indeed, there have
been mind-numbing debates over the true definition of how a Smart Grid will be
implemented. We aren’t going there.

 

Because
of the evolving views about what the Smart Grid is, Microsoft’s Worldwide Power
& Utilities Group recommends viewing the creation of the Smart Grid as a
journey, a process, or a vision and eschews hard definitions about what the
Smart Grid is or should be -- because it may change as technology and
implementation approaches evolve.

 

Definitions
of the Smart Grid/Smart Energy Ecosystem will continue to evolve as new
equipment and new business models emerge. Microsoft will work with its partners
in a flexible, agile manner to serve the utility industry in this time of
transformation. Utilities will need to find partners whose technologies can
evolve with the Smart Grid and Smart Energy Ecosystem. Microsoft and its
partners can provide that core requirement. – Larry Kuhl, WW Utilities BD &
Alliance Manager