International delegates from Europe, Asia and the Americas joined discussions at GridWeek yesterday, which was themed around International Collaboration. Close to 1,000 were in attendance, and we anticipate 1,500 to engage in Smart Grid conversations over the course of this week.

Kick-off From U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke:

Monday morning’s plenary session commenced with opening remarks from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, who emphasized the criticality of advancing Smart Grid and the important role that standards, effective legislation and collaboration will plan in moving Smart Grid forward.  

Standards Needed Globally: Locke applauded the standards work currently underway by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and explained the role of standards in innovation:

“Imagine the kind of innovations we’ll see if a small business in Silicon Valley or Seattle can sell the same Smart Grid product or service in South Dakota, as it does in Seoul and Stockholm.

Entrepreneurs everywhere will start developing Smart Grid products knowing they can sell what they make anywhere on earth. These economies of scale can kick-start an innovation revolution.” (Full speech available here.) 

We Must Get Regulation and Policy Right:  In discussing the important role regulation and policy will play, Locke claimed, “The challenge, now, is to update the regulations and the standards that govern the patchwork systems of power generation and distribution.  If we can do this, we’ll incentivize the rapid roll out of the Smart Grid while protecting consumers and lowering energy demand.”

We Must Cross Borders:  Pointing to the need for international collaboration, Locked stated: “Modernizing our electric grids and enabling them, across state lines and border crossings, to share energy and communicate with each other, is a project of great urgency.”

Roundtable of Industry Leaders Emphasizes Importance of Collective Efforts

Following Locke’s opening keynote, an industry roundtable of international leaders addressed worldwide Smart Grid implementation strategies, international innovation and advancement of global standards. There’s no question that the common theme was collaboration. Underscoring this notion, Paul Camuti, President, Siemens Energy, strongly stated that Smart Grid success can absolutely not be accomplished by “one company,” or even one nation.

It’s clear from this morning’s panel that expanding Smart Grid discussions across borders and continents is an important step in Smart Grid progress. We must learn from nations that are getting Smart Grid deployments, policy and regulation “right“ and collectively join forces to help solve the challenges we’re each battling as individual countries.

For example, we might look to Japan, a country focused on developing smart communities with a heavy emphasis on demand-side management and electric vehicles (EVs). We could learn from these implementations and apply those strategies in the United States.

We could learn from policy leadership in Denmark, which is striving to be carbon-neutral and fossil-fuel free by 2050. This type of clear political direction will empower utilities to forge ahead with Smart Grid plans and encourage companies to move forward with innovation.

Our morning roundtable also took an interesting turn toward EVs, a topic igniting lots of passion amongst global Smart Grid stakeholders. With millions of EVs expected on roads in the next several years, nations around the world will need to collaborate to get the right standards and technologies in place.  This is a topic that will be explored in depth on Thursday during the EV Grid Summit.

Let’s Collaborate to Move Smart Grid Forward, like the Internet

In preparation for yesterday’s international discussions, I took a 21-day “Smart Grid” tour of the world last summer. I learned something very simple. We have the opportunity to advance Smart Grid like we did the Internet and the Ethernet cable, which evolved rapidly thanks to common global standards. Or, we could evolve Smart Grid like the electrical socket, which requires an entire case of socket adaptors when hopping from one country to the next.

I vote for the Internet. And that requires collaboration.

All of the presentations from GridWeek 2010 will be available for download online at www.GridWeek.com starting this Thursday. Videos from each plenary roundtable will also be available within the next two weeks.