The energy grid is about to be similarly transformed, driven by many of the same disruptive trends: deregulation, competition, decentralisation, “virtualisation”, open standards and rapid technological innovation.
Renewable energies, initially derided as small-scale, intermittent and costly, will lead this revolution because (unlike fossil fuels) they use technology to deliver price and performance improvements every year.
Power generation will increasingly be distributed, but by linking these decentralised sources via IT networks, we can balance out the intermittency, using energy storage to smooth the peaks and valleys of solar, which delivers maximum output during the day, and wind, which peaks at night.
