Where is Smart Grid's Green Button? GridWeek Conference Ends With Call to Action From U.S. CTO

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The four-day annual GridWeek conference wrapped with a definitive call-to-action on Thursday from the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S.A., Aneesh Chopra, who inspired attendees to innovate in the spirit of economic growth and to create a consumer-empowering "Green Button," modeled off the Veterans Affairs Blue Button.

The "Blue Button" is much like a one-stop shop for easily exportable, printable and downloadable health records for Veterans on My HealtheVet. Since the October 2010 launch, the site has attracted more than 400,000 users, according to Chopra's presentation, which can be downloaded here.

"Blue Button gives Veterans complete control of this information – without any special software – and enables Veterans to share this data with their health care providers, caregivers, or people they trust," according to the U.S.   Department of Veterans Affairs website.

A Green Button for Consumer Empowerment: Using energy data and technology, could a "Green Button" be created for consumers? Chopra posed this question to the audience: "How can we safely and securely provide customers electronic access to their energy information, thereby supporting the continuing development of innovative new products and services in the energy sector?"

According to Chopra, "Open collaboration principles can empower consumers, quickly."  Using principles of standards, open collaboration, multi-stakeholder cooperation, ease-of-use, and a "lean start-up" model, Chopra sees huge opportunities for consumer-serving innovations related to energy data and Smart Grid.

"Make Locally and Sell Globally": Innovations in Smart Grid could improve the economic vitality of the U.S., create jobs, and boost trade -- and these very benefits drove many GridWeek conversations over the course of the week. Chopra discussed how clean energy exports have been a contributor to jobs and asked,  "Will we be net importers or net exporters of these Smart Grid-derived products and services?"

Chopra was not shy in saying, "let's get moving," and encouraged attendees to "come together and create a virtual start-up" to meet this ultimate objective.  

Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate: The spirit of collaboration was the under-current of GridWeek, where 1,000 industry stakeholders from across the Smart Grid community collaborated to define the way forward for Smart Grid.

Over the course of four days, attendees focused on:

• Utility deployments, in a virtual report card of Smart Grid deployments to date;
• A look ahead at drivers shaping the industry for the next 20 years;
• Strategic solutions that get beyond the hype to deliver real value to consumers; and
• International collaboration

Expanding this collaboration overseas in 2012, the first GridWeek Asia will take place in Mumbai, India, from January 16-18, 2012.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the sixth annual GridWeek in Washington, D.C., October 1-4, 2012.

Clasma Events, Inc. specializes in strategic conferences at the center of the worldwide energy discussion. Clasma's major events include ConnectivityWeek, GridWeek and Grid-Interop.

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SOURCE Clasma Events