smart: Could the smart grid everyone is talking about lead to more than just a high-tech energy infrastructure, including much more of society and our economy than we currently imagine? Like a merging of the smart meters, Facebook, smartphones, and just about everything else in our lives?Will the smart grid likely involve more than just clean energy?The smart grid refers to a specific meta-structural analysis of electric energy production. It really isn't a grid any more than cloud computing is a cloud. it's a way to look at electricity. The grid refers to old electric plants that used this giant chart on a board with flashing lights to tell them that electricity was flowing properly. the smart grid is just a way of saying that electricity is flowing more efficiently From a computer perspective it's the hardware. The reason it's smart is because your home will constantly update itself on power usage, and this will allow the grid to shunt energy into better channels. this will also allow the home plant to reduce energy output during low demand periods. Really you'll have very little personal interface with this grid because it will be handled on the micro scale and at a speed much faster than you can manually input information. From a computer perspective, it's like when you upload a program and the computer reads all the information on a disk. While you technically put the disk in the tray you are not really impacting the program because the disk and the computer are communicating with each other. The smart grid the plant is the computer and the home is the data disk, your input is turning on a light Now part of that reason is interface, the What you are describing is the software of the grid. A way for you to interact with the smart grid. Really that has already happened in more advanced plants where you can check all the information on current entering and leaving the house by checking your laptop. If you wanted to integrate facebook that's a different choice but it still has no effect on the hardware end of the grid.Will the smart grid likely involve more than just clean energy?There's some pretty straight-forward information on the Smart Grid at http://tinyurl.com/3zrw7uo - it explains how it will improve aging infrastructure, lead to self-sufficiency and two-way power, reduce consumer's power bills, and contribute to better use of earth's resources. Report Abuse Will the smart grid likely involve more than just clean energy?The smart grid that is being implemented is nothing but a fancy scheme to squeeze more money out of the consumer. The first phase is the implementation and "honeymoon". The customers will begin to save money if they use the technology to cut back on usage, at this juncture interacting with the technology and purchasing smart grid compatible appliances will be compulsory. However after the honeymoon is over, new restrictive pricing plans will be implemented. Instead of being charged for a bulk monthly rate, customers will be charged incrementally more during peak hours. To prevent prohibitive excess fees, your smart appliances will begin shutting off automatically to conserve during peak hours. For example, if you want to cook something in the smart microwave for a few minutes, the smart refrigerator's compressor will not kick on. In the final phase of implementation, smart appliances will be practical mandatory, due to prohibitive pricing plans. You will not be able to preheat your oven and run the air conditioner, and watch television at the same time. You will eventually become a slave to your home appliances.