I wrote a story for today’s Toronto Star about smart grid technologies and the opportunities from an investment perspective. With more than 60 per cent of circuit breakers, transmission lines and transformers on the grid 25 years or older, the North American “grid” is long overdue for an overhaul. It’s estimated that half of all money spent in North America each year on the grid — more than $12 billion — will be put towards the purchase of smart grid technologies that move us towards a modernized, digital electrical system that is self-monitoring, adaptive and self-healing.
“The same technologies that revolutionized computing, remade telecommunications and created the Internet, computers, electronics, and advanced materials are now reshaping the electric power infrastructure,” according to the report.
The report is well worth checking out. Very detailed, and it provides a terrific overview of the grid of today and of the future.