Slides for Webinar: The Evolution of the Smart Grid - Part 1

Part 1: Eroding Foundations of the Legacy Electric Grid Carl Sagan said, "You have to know the past to understand the present". Most everyone knows something about the emerging smart grid. However, not everyone knows the whole story about how and why the smart grid began. It is not only fascinating, but also useful to understand the underlying causes that led to the emergence and continuing development of a smart grid. It's all about changing technologies and business models. In Part 1 of this webinar we will examine why and how the foundations of the century old legacy electric grid have eroded, beginning in the 1970s in the aftermath of the OPEC oil embargo. Longstanding favorable economics, acceptable reliability, stable monopoly business model, and standard utility operations were adversely affected.