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© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Making electricity grids smarter is a challenging, long-term, and ambitious process. It consists of many possible transitions and involves many actors relevant to existing and potential functions of the grid. We applied a two round Policy Delphi process with a range of sectoral experts who discussed important drivers, barriers, benefits, risks and expected functions of smarter grids, to inform the development of smarter grids. Our analysis of these expert views indicates broad consensus of the necessity for smarter grids, particularly for economic and environmental reasons; yet stakeholders also associated a range of risks and barriers such as lack of investment, disengaged consumers, complexity and data privacy with measures to make the grid smarter. Different methods for implementing smarter grid functions were considered, all thought to be more likely in urban settings. Implications for policy and future research are considered. This research was undertaken as part of the research programme of the UK Energy Research Centre, supported by the UK Research Councils under Natural Environment Research Council award NE/J005975/1. Open Access funded by Natural Environment Research Council