May I quote the Department of Energy? Shazzam!
Our century-old power grid is the largest interconnected machine on Earth, so massively complex and inextricably linked to human involvement and endeavor that it has alternately (and appropriately) been called an ecosystem. It consists of more than 9,200 electric generating units with more than 1,000,000 megawatts of generating capacity connected to more than 300,000 miles of transmission lines.
So the grid is a mind-numbingly huge system. And that’s the pre-Obama administration lingo. I can’t wait for the forthcoming Classical allusions.
“Smart Grid” proponents say the grid is unweildy and inefficient. Using “smart grid technologies” 1) improves our accesss to renewable energy, 2) will save us billions of dollars, 3) will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 4) create new business opportunities.
What are smart grid technologies? Basically, they (sort of) allow the grid to think for itself. Like Terminator.