In February 2009, the California Energy Commission (CEC) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to “define the pathway to the California smart grid of 2020.” As stated in the RFP, among the challenges that California electric utilities will face are systems interoperability, communications and common information model standards, implementation schedules, well-defined interfaces and adapters to legacy systems. To a systems integrator, this sounds like the startup checklist to any project. To an electric utility, it’s a whole new ballgame.