A few weeks ago, Kathryn wrote about her smart meter on the way it helps her impact the energy use in her own home. Well, smart meters are but one piece of the overall smart grid concept.
Watch this Smart Grid Video
And although this video is clearly a piece of proganda, I think it does a nice job explaining the vision of what a smart grid might be and do for us.
And with the stress on our grid (or, really, grids), we’ve got to do something. Of course, if we got a lot more serious about energy-effiiciency, and actually started significantly ratcheting back our energy usage, in buidlings and homes in particular, we could get by with a plain old dumb grid for a lot longer! We are running out of time on this, though. While it’s not something we talk about much, and we almost never here about it in the press (why would we? The latest hubbub on Britney Spears is SO MUCH more important!), utilities know: most of the country is headed toward serious issues with generation capacity and transmission. Smart grid or not, we need to act soon.
Thanks,
Mike
