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General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and FPL Group Inc. (NYSE: FPL) are all over the media today about an event with the Miami, Florida, mayor  for energy efficiency.  A conference call will be held at 1:00 PM EST today to discuss “a groundbreaking new energy public-private alliance that will promote energy efficiency, renewable energy and give the city, county, local businesses and Miami area residents more control over how they generate, consume and conserve electrical power.”

With the smart grid and with energy efficiency and renewable energy being such a large part of the current administrations goal, you have to wonder how big this opportunity is from top to bottom.  This estimates size varies wildly, but quite simply it is in the billions of dollars.  And not just a few billion.

GE’s Jeff Immelt is joining Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and Cisco’s John Chambers and the CEO of FPL for this new energy public-private alliance.  The alliance is designed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives to give the city, county, local businesses and Miami-area residents more control over how they generate, consume and conserve electrical power.

We had a $4.5 billion outline as what the Department of Energy was allocated under the stimulus plan for modernization of the power grid, but we would stress that many estimates out there have called the opportunity for companies modernizing the power grid for the next generation as an opportunity exponentially larger than this on a financial basis.

Jon C. Ogg
April 20, 2009