As it turns out, there are actually TWO Smart Grids. The first is the one we all know about – the one where we force smart meters on everyone – and they really hate it and everything about it. The ‘other’ Smart Grid, however, has very little to do with smart meters and until recently was one of the best kept secrets around, except for the select few who realized early on that the first one was really an elaborate socialist-commie-pinko plot to control our lives through an electricity meter. (Clever, verrrry clever!)

More specifically, the ‘other’ Smart Grid I’m alluding to is the one where we actually modernize the grid and prepare ourselves for the challenges of the 21st century. Among other things, that will involve tackling issues like the fact that the average transformer in service today is 42 years old and we no longer have an extra one tucked away in the warehouse in the event of a failure. It also involves recognizing that it isn’t just old transformers that we have to worry about, but also that a large portion of the grid infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life, and we don’t have the requisite funding to repair it – much less replace it!

Then there’s also the human capital component of the ‘other’ Smart Grid. As we now know, the bulk of the current work force – the part that knows how all of the old grid works – has started retiring at the rate of about 1,000 workers a day for the next 20 years. Are you getting the picture here? Or, as the kids say these days, “Do you feel me?”

And that ‘other’ Smart Grid has so many dimensions to it that it’s much harder for average people to understand. Therefore, it can’t be neatly confined to a simplistic rollout of standardized widgets. Because it’s so complicated, it doesn’t usually get anywhere near the same level of recognition that the ‘regular’ Smart Grid gets either. It just isn’t all that interesting for most folks, I guess.

But I think perhaps that’s beginning to change. Recently there was a post on one of the online groups I belong to asking the question: If Smart Grid is the solution, what is the problem? This question evoked a number of really interesting responses, looking at various aspects of the issue from a wide-ranging spectrum of opinions and viewpoints. The one that really stopped me in my tracks, however, was a post from an engineer in India who said – and I’ve taken some license here to clarify and do a bit of paraphrasing, hopefully without changing the meaning of the original post…

“Smart grid is nothing but [the] modern grid. It has two components: One [is] IT, and the other is old style systems engineering, etc. Now, in the IT business, we are going to go to plug-and-play devices, and the rest is just as it was before. Do we need pubic voting for something that is technical and administrative? In India, we are close to plug-and-play devices for smart metering. We will probably build eight smart grid cities because we are not arguing about it. I think the biggest mistake has been to start a public debate on something that has always been there. True, the money has to be recovered, but then that is the cost of any improvements. [The] real problem is hijacking of this by IT companies, whereas really it is [a] power sector game!”

While you may not agree with all of it, I think the central point here is that in the industrialized world, we‘re busy arguing about the IT side of things and debating whether or not there will even be a Smart Grid.

Yet, the reality is that Smart Grid is fundamentally a power engineering issue and clearly something that must be done; it really isn’t optional or even up for debate. Indeed, with or without smart meters, I’m sure we all want to continue having electricity to keep the lights on; heat and cool our homes and businesses; ensure that traffic lights are working 24-7; and retain all of the other beneficial dimensions of electricity that most of us take for granted. Whether the source generation comes from oil, gas, the sun, the wind, or a steaming pile of garbage, we still want that power to be there when we need it.

Let’s not kid ourselves; the state of the grid today is a direct result of decades of deferred investment and deferred maintenance. The power grid has a lot of company in that respect. Over the past 50 years or so, we have been very democratic in our neglect of virtually every aspect of critical infrastructure: roads, bridges, telecommunications, railroads – even our educational institutions are straining under the burden of deferred infrastructure investments and deferred maintenance. All told, the price tag for fixing even the most critical of those deficiencies is in the trillions – yes, trillions (with a ‘T’) – of dollars.

Meanwhile, back at the Smart Grid we all know about, we’ve just spent (or will have spent very soon) several billion dollars on smart metering projects, funded primarily by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or the Stimulus Bill, if you prefer. When you add the required utility matching funds, you wind up in the neighborhood of $10-12 billion invested – again, mostly on smart meter projects. Sure, some other good things have been accomplished as well, but those projects are mostly in the minority when it comes to overall SGIG (Smart Grid Investment Grant) spending.

The good news is that the ‘other’ Smart Grid is finally starting to peek out from under the covers and get the recognition and attention it has always deserved. The bad news, however, is that the ‘other’ Smart Grid now needs an ‘other’ Smart Grid budget. Unfortunately, there isn’t one – at least not yet. It seems like that might be something worth considering, don’t you think? – Ed.