China is the most active investor in Smart Grid infrastructure today.  According to a 2010 report from Zpryme, the State Grid Corporation - the largest utility in China - was projected to spend $7.3 billion in that year alone on Smart Grid projects.  Their focus is on a concept called the Strong Smart Grid.  Like other utilities around the globe, they see their mission is to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective power to their customers.  Unlike other utilities, they are focusing most of their efforts in building an ultra high voltage (UHV) transmission backbone.  The purpose of this backbone is to transport electricity (renewable and tradtional sources) generated from remote, inland, and centralized sources to population centers that are largely concentrated along the coastline. 

Editor: Christine is reporting from The Internet of Things conference in China.

While China has also been negatively impacted by global economic trends, they still project increasing electricity consumption of 8.5% per year.  The Smart Grid has unique characteristics for each country that reflect legacy infrastructure, energy sources, population center locations, and policy constructs - regulated versus deregulated markets.   China's strong Smart Grid plans address transmission, standards, and integration of renewables and electric vehicles (EVs) at the distribution grid level with support of bi-directional power flows. 

The emphasis on standards is interesting, because I had to pack three different plug adapters to accommodate the three types of sockets that exist in China.  And yes, hotels in major cities typically have all three.

But the Smart Grid may just be a side show for China.  There is significant activity in the planning and buildout of the Internet of Things ( IoT), which is defined in the Smart Grid Dictionary as "a conceptual description of the ability to connect any objects with an IP address and some level of embedded intelligence to the communications network.  Embedded intelligence can include localization, sensing, identification, security, networking, processing, and control."

In other words, the Chinese are thinking big.  They don't plan to make the power infrastructure smart, they plan to make every infrastructure smart with sensing technologies that can be used in applications that range include agriculture, industrial processes, health care, and city operations.  The European Union has also been focused on technology and policy foundations for the IoT, but not at the scale seen in China.

Technology parks focused on IoT are being established throughout the country as part of federal, provincial, and local initiatives.  And the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications just this month kicked off an initiative called PROBE-IT, an acronym standing in for Pursuing Roadmaps and Benchmarks for the Internet of Things.  Member organizations include universities around the world and vendors interested in defining evaluation frameworks, testing methodologies and standards, and promoting and participating in interoperability events that enable a "plug and play" IoT.  An IoT interop event is planned for March 2012 in Paris that will test communications and protocols, including alternatives to the current technologies that support today's Internet. 

What are the implications of these initiatives for global citizens?  Using the Smart Grid as the micricosm for the IoT, increased information enabled by bi-directional communications gives consumers new options to participate in energy production and consumption and offers opportunities to more cost-effectively deliver services.  These are the same potential benefits for the IoT, and like the Smart Grid itself, the composition of infrastructure and realization of objectives will vary by country, region, and community.  

Photo by wantchinatimes.