Community and Small-Scale Grid Innovation - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 182

Inc. 2014 ) . The consortium is expanding into California, with a new development in San
Diego's Mission Valley called Civita (Pecan Street Inc. 2013c ).
7.5.2 Smart Grid as Texas-style Adventure
While the celebratory rhetoric of Pecan Street Inc.'s promoters is to be expected, what
about perspectives from beyond its local developers and commercial partners? Prior to
the project launch, the media buzz was similar to that for the proposed Boulder project.
For example, when describing the project, Inhabitat quoted an unnamed spokesperson
from Austin Energy as claiming that the project would be part of transforming the city
into “the urban power system of the future while making the City of Austin and its
local partners a local clean energy laboratory and hub for the world's emerging cleantech
sector” (Schwartz 2009 ) . Two years later, Smart Grid News described the Pecan Street
Project as providing the “sizzle,” “Disney-style magic,” and “razzle-dazzle” needed to
spark public interest in smart grid (Enbysk 2011 ) . The article went on to describe the
exciting household appliances, consumer electronics, and electric cars that were included
in the Pecan Street package due to partnerships with commercial giants such as Sony, Intel,
Whirlpool, Chevrolet, Landis+Gyr, and Best Buy.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has staked its credibility on backing Pecan
Street. The same article in E Magazine that featured Boulder as the nation's first citywide
smart grid also introduced Pecan Street as an innovative partnership between local
government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector in the form of a varied
group of commercial organizations (Martin 2010 ). The author quoted James Marsdon,
EDF's Energy Program Director, stating that “EDF views Pecan Street as so
groundbreaking, we believe we'll be able to recommend it as a future model for other
utilities around the nation” (Martin 2010 p. 29). With climate and energy as one of its focus
areas, EDF features Pecan Street on its website, where it proclaims that Pecan Street “is
a laboratory of ideas and technologies that will move the nation's $1.3 trillion electricity
market toward a future in which energy is cheap, abundant and clean. If Pecan Street is
successful, every neighborhood in America will look like it in 20 years” (Environmental
Defense Fund 2013 ) .AndwhenU.S.Department ofEnergySecretary Ernest Monizvisited
in2014,hedeclaredthatPecanStreetInc.wasa“vibrant,innovativeecosystem”forenergy
development (Price 2014 ).
7.6 Denmark's Ecogrid: Bliss in the Baltic
The European Union (EU) has demonstrated a strong interest in developing smart
microgrids, as demonstrated by an innovative project located on the Danish island of