The programme will consist of efforts to improve understanding of smart grid technologies, practices, and systems, to accelerate their development and deployment, and to promote adoption of related enabling government policies.  It will create a network of national stakeholders to facilitate dynamic knowledge sharing, technical assistance, and project coordination, where appropriate, across five topic areas:

• Policy, Standards and Reguation: Effective policies and efficient regulation are critical to the development and deployment of smart grid technoloiges, practices and systems. Sharing information on policies and regulations developed by a country and associated lessons learned; harmonising specfici policies regarding developing andn implementing smart grid inter-operability standards; and developing toolkits for policy makers for policy implmentation at the national, sub-national and local levels may accelerate overall progress on smart grids.
• Finance and Business Models: Implementing smart grid technologies will likely require new business models and financing mechanisms beyond simple rate recovery. Thus, an objective is to share information and experiences on novel governement and private-sector models to support deployment of smart grid systems.
• Technology and Systems Development: Co-operative research, development and demlonstration of pre-competitive smart gird technologies using consistent methodologies and testing protocols will advance the state-of-the-art of the industry and allow for more rapid deploymnet of smart grids.  Activities may include cataloguing existing RD&D efforts and co-ordinating laboratory or test bed networks.
• User and Consumer Engagement: The full benefits offered by smart grids will be achieveable only with the involvement of stakeholders along the full spectrum of the electricity system, from power generation through power transmission and distribution, and ultimately to end-use by consumers.  This area involves understanding how best to engage these many stakeholders to educate them on the prupose, benefits, and use of smart grids.
• Workforce, Skills and Knowledge: Implementation of new smart gird technologies and approaches to energy and information will require training not only of utility and power industry personnel directly involved with electricity production, trnasmission, and distribution, but also regulatory stafaf, information technology and cyber security specialists, and others who will need deep understanding of this complex and potentially transformational suite of technologies, practicies, and systems.

Annex 1. Global Smart Grid Inventory
The purpose of this Annex is to collect and catalogue the existing experiences of smart grid developments, demonstration and deployment under way in different countries, highlighting drivers, barriers and opportunities, taking into account the metrics (Key Performance Indicators or KPIs) developed and tested in Annex 3.