The key phrase here, as in most of the articles on “smart grid” is DR or “Demand-Response”. Google it if you don’t know what it is.
DR is only one part of smart grid, but it’s the part most people might find disturbing. DR gives the utility company the ability to “respond” to periods of high demand by turning off your big electrical-consuming appliances, such as your air conditioner. Not forever, but maybe 10 minutes out of the hour, when no matter what you do, the A/C will not run. The theory is that by curtailing demand a little bit for everyone, they can reduce peak consumption and thus reduce the potential for black-outs.
We report, you decide is this is something you like and want the gov’t to allow.
Then we will see another government bureaucracy to divvy out permits for those who are deemed a concern for losing electricity....
“DR gives the utility company the ability to “respond” to periods of high demand by turning off your big electrical-consuming appliances, such as your air conditioner. Not forever, but maybe 10 minutes out of the hour, when no matter what you do, the A/C will not run.”
As bad as it sounds now, wait until the REAL enabling legislation gets implemented. For example, I can wire around any attempt by a utility to remotely cut off my existing air conditioner. I know where every wire is, and I know what every wire does. However, with the Smart Meters, they will still be able to tell that my house is running the AC, just by my real-time power usage. So my AC stays on even though the utility commanded it off. Something has to give - and what has to give is that the utility will have to get laws passed CRIMINALIZING my workarounds (i.e., tampering). That’s where things start to get really ugly.
That's true for me. I'm all for a smart grid that tells me when off-peak charges are lower and helps me monitor my overall energy usage -- just don't even think about turning my stuff off when you feel like it.