A comparison of technology trajectories between the global and the United States in smart grid

This study aims to compare the technology trajectories between the United States (U.S.) and the global nations in the smart grid field. Highly cited patents were collected from 2001/1/1 to 2010/12/31 and then were analyzed through bibliographic coupling method, sliding TCT-based citation window and Girvan-Newman clustering for being converted into a global technology trajectory map as well as a U.S. one. Firstly, results show that three of the global technology trajectories are time-lagged than its counterparts of the U.S. one, including electronic trading, dynamic power and workload management, and network monitoring through user profiles. Secondly, we found that two of the U.S. technology trajectories does exist but cannot be found in the global map, containing remote monitoring, automatic trading process and interface circuit system. Lastly, the conditional purchase offer management (CPO Management) and also the dynamic policy management (DPM) of the global trajectories are missing in the U.S. map.