Readiness level to adopt smart grid technologies — Study for the city of Medellin

The smart grid development in Latin America shows a big gap in the amount of research and development when compared with the USA and EU where the topic has been active for almost 10 years. In this context two different models and expert surveys are used in this study to evaluate the readiness level of the city of Medellin to adopt smart grid technologies. The results of this study show that the City has the utilities, the knowledge, the universities and the human resource to become a role model in the region. But an effort to integrate all the actors and impulse a common agenda is required. The utility companies need to lead this development, but regulators, academia and industry must back up this endeavor and enable Medellin to lead the power grid development of the next years in the region.