By 2025, Navigant estimates that residential demand response will reach 23 GW in North America. What accounts for this surge in interest? DR comes down to pure economics-the payoff is almost immediate for both utilities and residents. Austin Energy first implemented residential DR in 2001. During its lifetime, the program has grown significantly and since 2013 has included a bring-your-own-thermostat option.

SGCC has announced the release of its communications toolkit to use when conveying smart grid benefits to consumers. The communications toolkit, Effective Communication with Consumers on the Smart Grid Value Proposition, was compiled following an online survey 502 US adults who regularly make decisions on household electricity usage and payments.

Xcel has long been a big purchaser of wind power, and has a growing amount of solar power. The company is now looking for ways to better integrate those renewable resources into its grid. In the partnership with Sunverge and Northern Reliability, Xcel will pair battery storage with rooftop solar on houses in Stapleton's North Central Park and Eastbridge neighborhoods in the Denver area.

The U.S. DOE has earmarked up to $30 million supporting new projects that will help integrate more solar energy onto the grid. Projects will receive funding through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's SunShot Initiative, which aims to accelerate solar adoption and integration. The largest project is PPL Electric Utilities' distributed system platform in Allentown, Penn.

We already have smartphones, smart clothing and smart appliances, but emerging smart cities are still a concept of our imagined future. A Virginia Tech team wants those smart cities to feature zero energy, zero outage and zero congestion. Their tools: big data and interdisciplinary technology.

Here comes the sun. In 2016, U.S. solar generation almost doubled, from 7,493 megawatts in 2015 to a new annual record of 14,626 MW. For the first time in 2016, solar ranked as the No. 1 source of new generation capacity additions on an annual basis. The forecast calls for more of the same. The U.S. could install another 13 GW in 2017, doubling of U.S. solar capacity in just two years.