Transmission & Distribution/Smart Grid Europe2012 from 9 to 11 October will set a stage for the key European energy experts to scrutinize newest smart grid developments and discuss investments in both capacity infrastructure and decentralized automated network. They will give updates on the current regulatory and financial mechanisms, and what efforts utilities and governments need to make to transition to ‘smart grid’. 

Smart grid has many definitions; principally, it is about energy efficiency & reliability and technological advancements that will change how the network is operated and how electricity  is produced, stored and consumed. In the future we will use renewable power (wind, hydro, solar, etc.) in a more integrated way to create electricity; we will also produce it at home, and we will use it to power our electrical vehicles, and our home in-built sensors will automatically manage when appliances are turned on and off. 

More information here.