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The EU energy package has officially come into force with two Directives and three Regulations aimed at creating an integrated Europe-wide energy market that will drive the first steps toward a smart grid.

The gas and electricity market Directives require that EU member states implement "intelligent metering systems that shall assist the active participation of consumers".

By 2020, the Directive targets that 80% of households in Europe should be equipped with smart electricity meters and that a complete rollout should be achieved by 2022.

As more of this gear is installed we begin to see the grid as an extensive two-way communications network, able to collect and transmit information to where it's needed. The next step? Creating the software and setting up the systems that can organize, analyze and ultimately act on the information collected in a way that improves the efficiency, reliability and self-healing capability of our electricity system and makes integration of renewables and distributed generation much easier.

But the investment needed to restore the ageing grid infrastructure has been lacking. In the US, for instance, an estimated $50bn to $75bn would be needed to update the existing infrastructure and give the US what it has never had - a truly national transmission network that would balance the load across the entire country.

This week, GE announced that in the first quarter of next year the company will "introduce" energy management-enabled appliances that can be controlled remotely by the local utility. GE says it is working on smart refrigerators, ranges, washer and dryers, dishwashers and microwave ovens, and it will use some of the first smart appliances in select homes in a pilot program in Louisville, Ky., with Louisville Gas and Electric Company.

Here is what we had in the initial KMC Futures trend. See also the alliance with GE.