Without direction and coordination within the utility, it begins to look like an endless pilot farm for vendors -- many do pilot programs, but few end up with large-scale deployments.

"We used to joke that the hard trick was to find a Smart Grid vendor that had not had a pilot with Duke" writes Jesse Berst, Founding Editor of the Smart Grid News.

But Duke Energy, after years of talk and little action, is forging ahead in its relationship with Cisco to develop an end-to-end communications architecture based on open standards. It plans to use a customer management system from Convergys, communications technology from Ambient, and the Networked Energy Services (NES) system from Echelon

In today's column, "From Pretender to Leader: Duke Lives Up to Its Own Publicity," Berst writes:

"Progressive, pioneering utilities are rare in our conservative industry, but badly needed as we begin the Smart Grid transformation. From where I sit, it’s great to see Duke stepping up to this important role and keeping the promises Rogers has been making for years."

And Duke is "and cautiously exploring nuclear options at home," Berst adds.