he shed, a glittering cultural centre in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards where Ralph Fiennes and Sir Kenneth Branagh have graced the stage, hosted an unlikely gathering of utility and technology bosses on May 29th. They were there not for Shakespeare, but for something as dramatic in its own way. The event celebrated Mercury, a new effort led by the Electric Power Research Institute ( epri ), an industry body, to create interoperability standards for “micropower” devices inspired by the Bluetooth technology that revolutionised consumer electronics. It will allow such things as electric-vehicle ( ev ) chargers, heat pumps, solar panels, smart thermostats and residential batteries to communicate seamlessly with electricity grids. Explore more