This will be a crunch year for smart grids. Fortunately the implementation of the government’s smart meter project, planned for 2007, has been delayed till 2009, enabling the utilities involved to review their plans, while at the same time allowing for a national review of the regulatory regime. This needs to be changed so that utilities will be encouraged to invest in smart grids rather than just in smart meters. Victoria took the leadership in smart meters and that made many utilities also to focus on the underlying infrastructure; building on this we will start seeing the first smart grids arriving in Australia in 2009. The $100 million Smart Grid funding provides a major boost for this development.
