While a series of recent national studies suggests that smart grid investments are a “no-brainer,” evaluations in the real world of utility investment analysis are anything but easy. A new Smart Grid Research Consortium white paper describes these difficulties and provides ten recommendations to assist utilities in evaluating smart grid investments. The white paper, “The Utility Smart Grid Business Case: Problems, Pitfalls And Ten Real-World Recommendations,” describes challenges utilities face in developing comprehensive investment strategies and identifies difficulties associated with several common approaches to smart grid investment analysis. The paper concludes with ten recommendations for undertaking investment analysis based on the Smart Grid Research Consortium’s cost/benefit model that has been applied at 15 utilities. Read More
