The company, established in 2004, supplies advanced metering products that let utilities deliver higher levels of customer service and information, reduce operational costs, and provide innovative new programs, thus allowing consumers to change their consumption behaviour to take advantage of lower market prices.
If the battery prototype can be scaled up, it could help utilities deliver renewable energy when the wind is calm and the sun isn't shining.
In January Mr Obama declared that a smart grid could "save us money, protect our power sources from blackout or attack, and deliver clean, alternative forms of energy to every corner of our nation"—grand goals indeed.America's power system has changed remarkably little over the past century, with centralised utilities delivering electricity to passive consumers.
Government's role involves regulation of electric utilities, delivering technical education, funding basic and applied research, revising building codes and decarbonizing its own facilities.
For instance, in June, General Electric NYSEE Symbol: GE) tends to consistently outperform other utilities, delivering on average four percent per June in excess of the utilities ETF (NYSE symbol: XLU) with 95percentt statistical confidence.
And over the last three years, the utilities have delivered -- on the portion of customers' bills that covers the cost of delivering power to homes and businesses.
So far, despite decaying infrastructure and budget pressures,, water utilities have delivered on their promise of healthy water.
But the concept of computing as a basic utility delivered over the internet is here to stay.
Of course the credit-crunch and subsequent austerity measures have led to an increased national focus on the utility delivered by public funding.
Paul De Martini, vice president for advanced technology at Southern California Edison, said that 16 percent of the energy the utility delivered to customers already came from renewable sources — wind, solar and hydroelectric.
In practice, no big utility delivers 100percentt renewable power to any customer, since electricity from all sources — coal plants, wind farms, solar panels — is mingled in the same wires.
