Why Customers Will Be "Mad as Hell" With the Current Smart Grid

John Egan, President, Egan Energy Communications, Inc, wrote on 3.29.12, the timely EnergyPulse.net article "Utility Customers are 'Mad as Hell' -- Can Utilities Find a Path to Peace? Based on what happened to regulated railroads, my conjecture is that such a question leaves very likely an empty space. That's why I suggest to increase the solution's scope.

Rewriting said question, by changing utilities with railroads, it reads "Railroad Customers are "Mad as Hell" -- Can Railroads Find a Path to Peace?" Each of us knows that cars, trucks, airplanes, customers didn’t find a path to peace from railroads. They found peace from suppliers of transportation solutions in the open market and the provision of new infrastructures that facilitated travel without the intervention of railroads executives.

This post aims to further support the EWPC post Why and How the Status Quo Should Respond to Criticism on Current Smart Grid Developments, by highlighting a missed opportunity to correct the huge architecting flaw introduced in the Energy Policy Act of 1992. That specific criticism about the new power industry infrastructure, also known as the Smart Grid, can be found in the article Should the Smart Grid be a Technological Project to Address a Challenge Faced by Utility Executives?

Just as I rewrote the above question, paraphrasing a quote in that article as a challenge to railroad executives, would say that:

… the interstate highway system project, circa 1930, where under the title “THE NEED FOR AN INDUSTRY ARCHITECTURE,” … it is written that “There is a two-part answer to the question, “Why it is necessary to develop an industry architecture?’ First, it must be understood that the challenge facing railroad executives is keeping the trains running while also enhancing the value of services to consumer… The second, and more powerful argument, is that the only way to address the challenge railroad executives face is to go back to basics, understand why the current system doesn’t perform as needed, and then to design the highway system from the ground up.”