European Smart Grid Faces Different Hurdles From United States'

摘要

Public pressure is growing across Europe for the transformation of the traditional electric grid into an intelligent network—a Smart Grid. "The electric grid," as one observer recently put it, "is probably the last unintelligent large physical network on the planet." Indeed, this last frontier of underdeveloped space is now finally ready to be explored (see Exhibit 1). Massive investments in transmission and distribution networks are being planned across Europe—up to EUR200 billion by 2020, with up to EUR90 billion direcdy related to investment in Smart Grid technology.