More from my Autovation notes: Ben Koch

Ben Koch, managing director in the corporate finance division of SWS Group, joined Austin Energy’s Mele at Autovation’s opening keynote session at the Austin Convention Center on September13. While he didn’t talk as much about communication as she did (see previous blog on Autovation by clicking here), Koch did mirror the executives at Itron and Cisco and discuss collaboration.

“We’re all on this road to a true end-to-end smart grid together,” he told the audience.

While Koch noted that there have been—and still are—obstacles on the road, the path is getting smoother and the industry is making progress.

“The smart grid has persevered,” Koch said, despite challenging economic conditions, complex integration issues, consumer skepticism, regulatory pressures and evolving standards.

While Koch admitted that financing is still an issue, he pointed to the Obama stimulus money for smart grid as being “on the right path” and noted that third party private investors are stepping up, offering nearly $500 million for smart grid products this year alone.

“On the private side, [companies] believe in smart grid opportunities,” he stated.

In the end, that investor faith in the smart grid was the one idea Koch really hoped every audience member would take away from his speech at Autovation.

“Investors are following [the smart grid] closely. They are willing to put capital to work,” he added.

Koch added that the smart grid market has a number of positives that investors look for, including growing market opportunities (1.3 billion electric meters around the world, for example), unique technology solutions and scalable business models.

While the gray area of emerging-but-not-definitive standards and significant consumer issues still remain, Koch doesn’t see those as impossible mountains to climb.

He said, “There will always be challenges in a market this size, but they will be overcome. It’s a great time to be in the [smart grid] market.”