The following is a copy of the Smart Grid Presentation that I gave to my Strategic MIS Class at Niagara University.

1. CURRENT TRENDS IN
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
Case 1: “The Smart Grid”
Angel Rivera
February 14, 2012
Strategic MIS
MGT 651B

2. MIS Case 1
Harvard Business Review,
“The Smart Grid”
by
Rebecca Henderson,
Noel Maurer
Catherine Ross
May 19, 2010

3. Presentation Outline
• Who is Cisco Systems
• What is the electric grid?
• How do we make it smarter?
• Cisco’s Smart Grid Vision
• Cisco’s Challenges
• Analysis
• Conclusions
• Questions

4. Who is Cisco Systems?
• Founded in 1984 by two Stanford
Professors who invented technology to
send e-mails between two on-campus
computer systems.
• Grew quickly providing computer
networking: hardware, software and
service
• By 2010 Cisco Systems had:
– 65,000 employees
– $35 Billion in revenue

5. Who is Cisco Systems?
• May 2009, Cisco systems announces plans
to enter the “smart grid” market.
• Goal to “build intelligence, resiliency and
two-way communications” into the electric
utilities transmission and distribution
systems.
• Smart Grid Market Report 2009 forecast:
– $100 Billion to $227 Billion within the coming
four decades.

6. What is electric grid?
• Three Primary Functions
– Generation
• Coal, Gas, Nuclear, Hydro
– Transmission
• High Voltage Power lines, Sub-Stations
– Distribution
• Residential and Commercial Customers.
– The power plants, wires, cables,
transformers, sub-stations, switches and
breakers that comprise the electric grid have
not fundamentally changed in the last 100
years.

7. What is electric grid?

8. How do we make it smarter?
• Smart meters to collect real time data;
• New data collection standards;
• New network communication systems;
• Demand / response management;
• Real time grid control: balancing loads,
detecting faults; and
• Home area networks enabling
appliances to communicate with
utilities.

9. How do we make it smarter?

10. Cisco’s Smart Grid Vision

11. Cisco’s Smart Grid
Challenges
• Development of industry wide
standards for interoperability;
• Lack of incentives for utilities to
reduce customer electric demand;
• Creating a scalable smart grid
networking architecture for current
and future communication needs;
and
• Developing a home area network for
appliances to communicate with
each other and the utility.

12. Analysis
• Cisco is a large, well funded,
industry leader in networking and is
moving aggressive in the smart grid
market; and
• Concern that Cisco may have
overextended by entering too many
areas all at once.
– Energy Dashboard – Abandoning in 2011
– High Consumer Cost ($900)
– Hardware easily substituted by the
iPad.

13. Analysis
• Strengths – Recent partnerships
with Itron Corporation (2012).
– Producing smart electric meters;
– Developing field area network (FAN)
products;
– Establishing communications and
security protocols;
– Selling products to large companies,
utilities and institutions; and
– Growing smart grid business in much
the same was they grew with the multi-
protocol routing and internet protocol
technology markets.

14. Conclusion
• Agree with the authors’ position
regarding smart grid
– Market with huge growth potential;
– Opportunity for improved efficiency
in electric transmission;
– New markets for controlling electric
consumption; and
– Ability to incorporate less reliable
electric power sources such as solar,
wind and hydro.

15. Conclusion
• Cisco is poised to be an industry
leader in smart grid.
• Recommendation:
– Concentrate on developing smart
meter and field area network
products for utilities; and
– Branch out into the consumer and
home energy networking markets.