[KarlInOhio]

Power companies would love to be able to shut off air conditioners remotely to keep from having black-outs, brown-outs, turning on expensive auxiliary generators or buying on the open market at extremely high rates. When you hear "smart grid" think "No AC between 3pm and 6pm".

Additionally they would love to be able to charge different rates at different times of the day and charge extra for non-sine wave power (think motors which take current at a different phase than the voltage and computers which tend to use a spike of current right at the voltage peak).

[a fool in paradise]

“and the imbalance created when more wind-powered energy is being generated than is being used”

So they will FORCE consumers to use electricity by turning on devices? Will that electricity be free to the consumer?