The nation’s smart grid is taking shape, and the world is watching. With a critical, $4.5 billion jump start in 2009 stimulus funding from the federal government for demonstration projects, the United States’ smart grid is gathering form. The concept has been discussed for years, but today leaders from across communications, information technology (IT) and energy have joined to capitalize on the momentum to make the electric utility infrastructure more reliable, more flexible, more efficient … in a word, smarter.