Stanford University has published a report detailing how targeted incentives, such as payments to specific groups of customers, to encourage the installation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) have the potential to cut the utility costs by 50% – a model that should persuade utilities to ramp-up their smart grid investments, to achieve those cost reductions. By taking a targeted approach to DER, as the report suggests, the utilities can make large savings on energy and infrastructure bills. Utility DER incentives, have tended to be untargeted in the past, and more like blanket offers. The Stanford model suggests that is not necessarily the most effective approach for a utility. DER can cause savings by reducing energy purchasing costs and reducing…