How smart is smart grid?

The headline reads: “A smart approach to saving energy.” The article explained that you could track your electricity use with the touch of a button using “smart grid” technology. Sounds good so far, but reading a little farther along you find out that the power company intends to use this technology to cycle your power on and off for environmental reasons and to avoid outages. Now don’t get me wrong. I try to save energy wherever I can but I don’t want the power company making the decision for me. It’s too Orwellian.

On the IT side, Cisco has jumped into the market by announcing they plan to provide the power companies with the gear that they need to create a control network from the power plant to the home. You can bet that businesses will be affected as well. This will make UPS systems and standby power even more important for SME data centers and server rooms. Not only will we be facing outages from natural causes but we will have to deal with man made outages in the name of the environment and reduced energy consumption.  

A better way would be to come up with additional clean energy that will help businesses continue to operate and grow the economy.