Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, praised President-elect Obama for prioritizing smart grid modernization and energy efficiency programs under the stimulus package yesterday, but according to the Initiative, smart grid technology in a so-called national transmission grid is only part of the equation. The Initiative points to smart microgrids as the best solution to quickly and effectively accomplish Obama's energy goals: saving money; protecting the nation's power sources; and delivering clean, alternative forms of energy to consumers in the U.S.

Smart microgrids -- small, local, modernized versions of the electrical grid that carries bulk power across the country -- are the most secure, efficient, reliable and cost-effective method to bring the nation's ailing and obsolete grid infrastructure into the 21st century. The Initiative is calling on the incoming administration and Congress to pass federal mandates that shift control over local power distribution grid infrastructure from state regulators and utilities to consumers and municipalities, allowing for the development of smart microgrids nationwide.