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.
Let’s say the smart grid is implemented. We might save ten percent on our electricity expenses. All of the doomsday predictions (running out of energy, pollution ...) will still be there. All that will have changed is that a new doomsday scenario becomes possible: the complex grid will choke up because of a mechanical failure or hacking, and no one will understand what happened. Also, as someone said, it’s one more incursion of government into our lives.
Next thing they’ll do something similar to our cars: stop our engines for ten minutes during periods of high fuel demand.