International assessment of smart grid drivers and technologies: Analysis across countries and by economy and continent

This paper summarizes development of the ISGAN (International Smart Grid Action Network) framework of assessment culminating with identification of the first biennial assessment results of smart grid motivating driver and technology priorities at both the national level and multinational level. As of 5 September 2012, 19 ISGAN Participants had completed and validated 27 assessments via the developed web-based assessment tool. A methodology devised with weighting schemes for motivating drivers and smart grid technologies has allowed clustering analyses of these assessments at the national level and multinational level. Clustering analyses for all ISGAN Participants, as well as of Participants by economies and by continent, were conducted; these multinational-level prioritized assessment results are provided herein. The national-level prioritized assessment results have been used to identify smart grid projects for data collection for the ISGAN Inventory that is intended to serve as a global resource on smart grid activities across ISGAN Participants.