Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities

When was the last time you thought about electricity, where it comes from, and who pays for it? Peter Fox-Penner takes us on a lively and knowledgeable tour of our incredibly baroque electrical grid, from the vertically integrated major generators to deregulation of the 1990s. Essentially, the electrical system is based on an illusion of an efficient market, carefully maintained with endless red tape. The “spot price” of electricity swings wildly from one day to the next, and even hour to hour as utilities balance demand from millions of appliances with generation from thousands of plants. Yet, even as the market price of electricity varies, consumers pay the same amount, whether it’s for expensive power at 4:00 PM on a hot afternoon, or cheap power at 2:00 AM.

The Smart Grid, a combination of consumer meters that can pay for electricity at market rates, along with appliances that adjust consumption to match price, distributed generation, and high voltage lines, might save money, and the planet, but there are immense political and technological barriers in place. The power sector is entrenched, complex, and full of traps for the unwary. Most of all, this book shows that immense resolve will be required to make a better future.