The Clean Slate Report is talking about smart grids... this is exciting stuff, and just shows what can be achieved in deregulated energy markets.

A good example cited by Clean Slate is Comverge - take a look, apply such ideas to China and see how many $$$ signs* you can count before hitting the floor.

China may be many years off such technology - but then again, perhaps not so far. Rumour has it the State Grid Corp will put itself up for an IPO in 2008. If it can pull this off then how much capital could flood into the China electric power infrastructure? Bear in mind even smallish Chinese banks are raising US$5 billion in HK listings these days... the sky could be the limit for the state grid operator, given the huge growth in electricity demand forecast for China.

With some hearty capital behind it and the inevitable major restructuring which would be required to turn State Grid into an investible entity, network operations could quickly become very interesting over here!

* and of course how many more blue sky days!