About Social Media Today
Posts by Christine Hertzog Subscribe 
The Smart Grid’s Role in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies
The dust is still settling on the recent United Nation’s Rio+20 environmental summit, and reactions range from disappointment at the lack of national governmental consensus to optimism at the range and success of local governmental and corporate...
Simulating the Sun – Using Analytics to Expand Solar Markets
Installations of solar systems that generate electricity are coming down in price due to materials innovations and manufacturing efficiencies. But it’s been a challenge to wring costs from the part of the value chain that is focused on...
Will a Natural Monopoly Protect Electric Utilities?
There are some striking similarities between the old Bell Telephone system and today’s regulated electric utilities. Both were highly regulated, had similar mission-critical mindsets to deliver electricity or dial tone, and did not have to...
Policy Decisions Make Things Happen for the Smart Grid
There are three types of people in the world, the saying goes. Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. When it comes to the Smart Grid, this observation applies to businesses and...
Words of Advice for Utility Executives
It’s the high season for Smart Grid conferences. The recent eMeter Leadership Conference combined practical, hands-on knowledge with intriguing insights and thought-provoking statements about directions for industry and consumer...
If a Butterfly Flaps Its Wings in California, Will the Smart Grid Deploy Faster?
The Butterfly Effect is a part of popular culture. It essentially states that if, when, and where a butterfly flaps its wings activates a chain of reactions that culminate in a big weather event like a hurricane or tornado in some distant part...
Managing Peaks without Overbuilding the Electric Grid
The old wireline Bell telephone system was built for Mother’s Day. The Bell system network planners knew that this one day in May was the mother of all phone call traffic peaks in the USA. They designed their networks for that anticipated capacity....
Is An Electricity Négociant in our Future?
Ahh, California. The land of milk and honey. And wine – lots of it. Silicon Valley denizens like me can find vineyards and wineries within a 30 minute drive in any direction. So it stands to reason that we’re more...
Should We Spend More Time Educating Utilities Instead of Consumers?
Do most Americans spend eight or more hours of their days thinking about electricity? No. They spend their days worrying about more important things, like how to convince their children to sensibly use various social media channels;...
Five Reasons Planet Earth Likes the Smart Grid
The Union of Concerned Scientists released a new guide titled “Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living” that offers practical steps Americans can adopt to reduce carbon emissions. The largest contributor of carbon emissions is...
Our Electric Grid – As Unsinkable as the Titanic?
A catastrophic failure compounded by a lack of failover strategies and an inability to think the unthinkable. These are the main reasons for the sinking of the Titanic. Could these also be the post-mortem conclusions for the next large-scale...
Smart Grids and Smart Cities – Same Problems, Same Solutions?
The world population is expected to soar to more than 9 billion people by 2050. Roughly 70% of the global population will live in cities, which today consume 70% of global energy supplies. That’s a concern for electric and water...
