Smart Grids Roadmap - Smart Grid Sherpa

International collaborationThis roadmap recommends the following actions:Expand smart grid collaboration; particularly related to standards and sharingdemonstration findings in technology, policy, regulation and business modeldevelopment.Link with electricity system technology areas that are not exclusively focused onsmart grids.Expand capacity-building efforts in rapidly developing countries by creating smartgrid roadmaps and undertaking targeted analysis tailored to contexts such as ruralelectrification, island systems and alternative billing approaches.MilestonesTargeted effort from 2011to 2015. Ongoing to 2050From 2011Focused initiatives to 2030.Ongoing to 2050Expand existing internationalcollaboration effortsInternational collaboration enables the sharing ofrisks, rewards and progress, and the co-ordinationof priorities in areas such as technology, policy,regulation and business models. In order to reachthe goals set out in this roadmap, smart gridsneed to be rapidly developed, demonstrated anddeployed based on a range of drivers that varyacross regions globally. Many countries havemade significant efforts to develop smart grids,but the lessons learned are not being sharedin a co-ordinated fashion. Major internationalcollaboration is needed to expand RDD&Dinvestment in all areas of smart grids – butespecially in standards, policy, regulation andbusiness model development. These efforts willrequire the strengthening of existing institutionsand activities, as well as the creation of new jointinitiatives.Standards play a very important role in thedevelopment of technology. By providing commondesign protocols for equipment, they can increasecompetition, accelerate innovation and reducecosts. International collaboration on standards isvital to ensure that the needs of various regionsare included, and to reduce repetition andoverlap in the development of standards. Severalorganisations are already working to harmonisestandards; continued and increased efforts areneeded as discussed earlier in the section ontechnology development.There is an urgent need to develop a significantnumber of commercial-scale demonstrationprojects and share the results among electricitysystem stakeholders. Projects are being developedat a national or regional level, but the reportingof data, regulatory approaches, financialmechanisms, public engagement experiencesand other aspects need to be shared globally. TheInternational Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN),which has been created to address this need, willserve an important role as a platform and forumfor compiling global efforts, performing analysisand developing tools for stakeholders. The GlobalSmart Grid Federation (GSGF), APEC Smart GridInitiative, the European Electric Grid Initiative(EEGI) and European Energy Research Alliance JointProgramme (EERA JP) on Smart Grids are examplesof global or regional initiatives that need to buildon and strengthen their collaboration as theymonitor the implementation of the actions andmilestones in this roadmap. 28Create new collaborationswith other electricity systemtechnology areasSmart grids include technology areas, such asrenewable energy resources and demand response,which are not exclusively associated with, but arerelated to, smart grids. Some of these technologyareas were being studied long before the termsmart grid was developed, and therefore mayoffer solutions to problems that smart grids hopeto address. Collaboration with these electricitysystem technology areas has the opportunity toaccelerate the useful deployment of smart gridsand avoid repeating past development work.An ideal way to collaborate across these electricitysystem technology areas is through the IEAImplementing Agreements (IAs). 29 Of the 43 IAs,11 focus on electricity system issues (Table 9); theseare co-ordinated under the Electricity Co-ordination28 Web addresses for these organisations can be found on p. 48.29 IEA Implementing Agreements are multilateral technologyinitiatives through which IEA member and non-membercountries, businesses, industries, international organisations andnon-government organisations share research on breakthroughtechnologies, fill existing research gaps, build pilot plants andcarry out deployment or demonstration programmes.International collaboration41© OECD/IEA, 2010