IBM draws up smart lecky plans
BIGGISH BLUE THINKS that the US electricity network is now so out of date it wants upgrade it with a more unified smart-grid system.
According to news.com, IBM is drawing up one of its legendary technical frameworks to speed up new technology integration into the ancient electricity distribution grid.
Drew Clark, director of strategy for IBM's Venture Capital Group, said that the big idea is to create a common set of communication protocols and data formats which utilities and smart-grid start-ups can use.
This means that any new technology can be plugged into the grid on a large scale, rather than using an inefficient system of differing products.
"Utilities are starting to look at smart-grid systems, but really have not got a clue how to do it. There is no co-ordinating plan," Clark said. ยต
L'Inq
News.com
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T. Boone Pickens, Richard Branson IBM and the like... 
Thanks for not leaving it to Sun.
Will it come in on budget? If it's a big enough budget it will.

Will it come in on time? If they give us long enough it will.

Will we get rich off the tax dollars? You bet you're yacht we will!
As a California resident, I can see where a smart grid would be a very good idea for better disaster management and peak load management.

The disadvantage to having the same protocols and equipment everywhere is the possibility of hacking or just software failure shutting down the whole grid one day in seconds or minutes. 

Also interconncting everything everywhere gives rise to new failure modes and unexpected behavior, though much of that might be caught by simulation. One doesn't want to see a rat getting fried in a transformer shutting off the grid in some unaccounted for cascade of errors and failure. The counter argument is that we'd be better off than we are now except in a Cyberwar.

Which brings up the question - why does the grid need to be connected to the Internet at all? Power suppliers have right of way everywhere. Isn't the added, not absolute, security gained from a separate net worth the modest price?
power to whoever wants it. While I understand the oft-repeated(and overused) argument that coal electrons work the same as green electrons, I think that Americans should be able to choose where they buy their electric from. Because, while someone's electricity might come from a soot-spewing coal-burning plant, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to buy an equivalent number of watts from a source that they could, at least technically, have used.

Solar power, according to what I've read, comprises less than 1% of America's available power. But I bet if Americans could choose where they buy their electricity from, solar power(and the others) would sell at a premium. I live in Conway, AR where the electricity is cheap and a lot of the surrounding area is taken up by absolutely humongous properties and houses.

I'm wondering how much more than the nominal 6-7 cents per kilowatt hour these people would be willing to pay to be able to say their electricity comes from a wind, water or solar power company.