Companies That Could Benefit From Investing In Smarter Electricity Grid (CSCO, GOOG, MSFT, IBM, DUK ,FPL, ABB, ITRI, ENOC)

Mike Hogan wrote an interesting article in Barron's, that calls for investing more funds in America's electric power grid. The author pointed to many faults of current electric system, naming sporadic blackouts, summer brownouts, and sky-high utility bills that are the result of the inefficiency of the system and waste.

U.S. currently spends $10 billion on a smart grid, but according to Barclays estimate this number could grow to $40 billion a year in 2015. By 2030, U.S. could spend $100 billion on smart grid that uses metering, monitoring devices and communications technology to improve energy flow and communication between utilities and consumers.

Some of the biggest software and hardware companies like Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) could benefit from this increasing spending.

Utility companies like Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK) and FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE: FPL) are also in a good position to profit as their business includes installing advanced metering in their service areas.

Engineering and construction companies are also possible beneficiaries. ABB Ltd (ADR) (NYSE: ABB) is a company that provides power and automation technologies to utility and industry customers. EnerNOC, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENOC) and Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) are meter specialist and they could benefit from the fact that only 8% of buildings are equipped with smart electric meters.

Barclays sees significant opportunities for innovation and wealth creation in this sector, and maybe the best way to trade on this is through EnerNoC (ENOC), Itron (ITRI) and Comverge, Inc. (NASDAQ: COMV).