That GE has a huge stake in China's ultra-ambitious smart grid effort certainly isn't news, but the multinational smart grid player recently signed on to help China get a very important something the country doesn't have: national smart grid standards. State Grid Corporation of China, the world's largest power transmission and distribution company, the Chinese Academy of Science and GE have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to work together to develop standards for the country's monster smart grid rollout. China plans to spend about $100 billion on smart grids and another almost $600 billion on electric grids over the next 10 years as part of a top-to-bottom power infrastructure overhaul. According to China Daily, the partnership will focus on a variety of smart grid components, including standardization of EV charging technologies, grid-scale energy storage integration, distributed resources, microgrids and more. State Grid has released standards, but so far they haven't been adopted. While GE is now in the enviable position of being a player who gets to help make the rules, there's more to the story. As the article points out, China's energy use is expected to double over the next 10 years — and if that doesn't spell opportunity for technology companies and investors, nothing does.