"It's hard to base an entire network on renewables," he says. "Smart networks can detect the peaks and troughs and take them into account. They're also able to detect failure in the network a lot faster than what's possible now."

What we will end up with is a much more interactive, customer friendly power grid that's also more efficient and able to incorporate a wider variety of power sources. "This is good stimulus spending," says Steenstrup. "This is about building infrastructure for the 21st century."