Defining the Smart Grid is no easy task. When the experts, such as Paul Molitor, director of Smart Grid for NEMA, tell you there’s no simple definition, it seems like it could be nearly impossible for everyone else to explain the concept.
But even without that succinct definition, some distributors have been able to take advantage of opportunities that have arisen as a result of Smart Grid initiatives.
One example: Equipment Controls Co., Norcross, GA, began selling Advanced Metering Infrastructure equipment – an essential component of the Smart Grid – back in 2005, around the time that talk about the Smart Grid really began in earnest. Today, AMI sales make up about 15% of the company’s business, according to Jeff Swart, director of AMI Gas Services at ECCO.
The basic idea behind the Smart Grid is that the current grid needs to be modernized in order to keep up with the changing energy market. The answer for finding opportunity may not be in understanding everything about the Smart Grid but in understanding where the Smart Grid is right now and what’s needed right now. That’s what ECCO did four years ago, and the move appears to have paid off.
