so what's so smart about the smart grid?

D

Fereidoon P. Sioshansi isPresident of Menlo Energy

Economics and the editor andpublisher of EEnergy Informer, a

monthly newsletter. His professionalexperience includes working at

Southern California EdisonCompany (SCE), the Electric PowerResearch Institute (EPRI), National

Economic Research Associates(NERA), and most recently, Ventyx,now part of ABB. Since 2006, he hasedited five books on electricity market

restructuring, and energysustainability. He has degrees in

Engineering and Economics,including an M.S. and Ph.D. in

Economics from Purdue University.This article benefits from insights

gained from Smart Grid:Integrating Renewable,

Distributed, and Efficient Energy,recently published by Elsevier and

edited by the author. The views,however, are those of the author and

not necessarily shared bycontributors to the book.

ecember 2011, Vol. 24, Issue 10 1040-6190/

So What’s So Smart about theSmart Grid?

The Smart Grid, if properly implemented, promisesto allow the information revolution at last to permeatethe electric power sector, but it won’t come easy orcheap.

Fereidoon P. Sioshansi

I. Introduction

The electric grid, which powers

our economy and facilitates our

personal lives, is not as reliable as

we would like it to be. If a

reminder of the fragility of the

grid is needed, a portion of

Southern California abruptly lost

power on Sept. 8, 2011,

inconveniencing 6 million people.

And, of course, everyone

remembers the massive blackout

of August 2003, where 50 million

people in the Northeast U.S. and

Ontario, Canada, lost power.

Grid-related outages, not

counting those affecting the

distribution network during storms,

hurricanes and tornadoes, occur

with regularity and are more than

mere annoyances. Over 2 million

$–see front matter # 2011 Elsevier Inc. All right

people lost power during an early

New England snow in late

October 2011. More than half of

them were still without power

four days after the storm.

T he term Smart Grid, which

has became popular in

recent years, conjures images

of – well – a smart grid that is

self-detecting, self-healing, and

more reliable and dependable

than what we currently have. For

many, especially engineers, that

is the definition of the Smart

Grid – all the other features that

have been added on top of it,

mere icing on the cake. This

article suggests that there is

much more to the Smart Grid

than enhanced reliability,

although that remains its main

selling point.

s reserved., doi:/10.1016/j.tej.2011.11.005 91

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2011.11.005

92

II. Car Talk Analogy

By focusing onwhat new

capabilities orfeatures are missing

and/or will be needed,one can arrive at an

appreciation of what theSmart Grid can be.

National Public Radio’s

popular show, ‘‘Car Talk,’’ has

been among the most popular

radio programs for years. Yet the

word car in the title is a

misnomer. It is a mere vehicle

allowing an unusual blend of

humor and personal anecdotes,

with just enough about the

mechanics of car maintenance to

make the show such a popular

program. On a typical episode,

one may hear of a dispute

between a husband and wife on

how best to heat up a car’s

engine on a cold winter morning.

It borders on free marriage

counseling on the radio with

millions of people listening in.

The car is often left in the

background, serving as a vehicle

to discuss other, more interesting

issues.

W hat does car talk have to

do with the Smart Grid?

Smart Grid is more than about the

grid, and certainly more than the

engineering and technical aspects

of the grid. And that’s what

makes it more interesting and

much more broadly appealing,

not just to engineers and technical

people.

III. What Is the SmartGrid?

Smart Grid is any combination

of enabling technologies –

hardware, software, or practices –

that collectively makes the electric

power sector’s delivery

infrastructure – the grid – more

1040-6190/$–see front matter # 2011 Elsevi

reliable, more versatile, more

secure, more accommodating,

more integrated, more resilient,

and ultimately more useful to

consumers.

More important, a lot of time

and effort is frequently wasted in

finding a definition. I believe it is

putting the buggy before the

horse. Rather than coming up

with a definition for the Smart

Grid and then justifying why

it is a great idea, it makes more

sense to examine what is

missing or inadequate with the

current grid. By focusing on

what new capabilities or features

are missing and/or will be

needed, one can arrive at an

appreciation of what the Smart

Grid can be, and what useful

functionalities it should offer.

This also gets around the debate

about whether our existing grid,

which by most definitions may

not be perfect but is certainly not

dumb.

V iewed in this context, the

Smart Grid must embrace at

the minimum, six key driving

forces now fundamentally

affecting the electric power sector.

er Inc. All rights reserved., doi:/10.1016/j.tej.20

To serve the industry’s changing

needs today and in the future, the

Smart Grid must be:

� More reliable;

� More integrated;

� More accommodating of

growing intermittent resources;

� Facilitating the integration of

more distributed generation;

� Acting as a flexible two-way

conduit between generation and

load; and

� Enabling the ‘‘prices-to-

devices’’ revolution, now in its

infancy, to permeate beyond the

meter.

The list can easily be extended.

Below, I will briefly explain the

critical role that the Smart Grid

must play to accommodate these

fundamental drivers of the

industry.

A. Reliable

The requirement for increased

reliability should be self-evident.

The real puzzle is why we are

even talking about this topic in the

21st century in developed parts of

the world. Why hasn’t this issue

already been resolved? How is it

that significant numbers of

customers are thrown into the

dark with regularity and no prior

warning? How can a small error

on the part of a single

maintenance worker at one sub-

station in Yuma, Ariz., for

example, affect 6 million people in

San Diego, as apparently

happened in September 2011?

This has always been, and will

likely remain, the most

compelling raison d’etre of the

Smart Grid.

11.11.005 The Electricity Journal


D

B. Integrated

Most customersare obliviousto the delicatetango betweensupply anddemand thattakes placearound the clock.

Integration refers to enhanced

capabilities to balance supply and

demand in real time, a well-

known and challenging feature

of the electric power system.

Since electricity cannot be stored

cheaply or in large quantities,

generation has historically been

adjusted to meet variable and

uncertain load. Over a century,

the industry has made significant

investments in a variety of

plants with different

characteristics to enable this

remarkable feat. As demand

varies across the hours of the

day, or in response to rising or

falling temperatures, different

plants provide just the amount of

juice needed to keep generation

equal to load. Most customers

are oblivious to this delicate

tango between supply and

demand that takes place

around the clock on every

interconnected network across

the globe – except when the

lights go out.

T he problem with this brute

force approach is that it

requires a lot of idle capacity –

and investment – sitting

around most of the time just in

case the need arises. An analogy

would be an airline maintaining

enough capacity to meet peak

travel demand, which occurs in

the U.S. around Thanksgiving

holidays. Or for a telephone

network to build sufficient

capacity to handle all incoming

calls on Mother’s Day

simultaneously. Or building a

football stadium big enough


to handle the crowd for the

Super Bowl once a year. It can be

done, but it will be expensive –

and that is why airlines run out

of seats, phone networks get

inundated, and popular football

games sell out.

The Smart Grid can address

this problem by making minor

adjustments in load, as opposed

to relying entirely on generation,

as has been the historical

approach. This is not a new or

novel idea, but one that is

receiving increasing scrutiny

due to advancements in

enabling technologies, facilitated

by smart meters, dynamic prices,

and smart devices – further

described below. There is

also a growing interest to

better engage consumers into

the supply-and-demand

balance, as further described

below.

C. Integration is about

engaging the disengaged

customer 1

For much of its history, the

electric power companies


paid scant attention to what

consumers did to electricity

once it reached their meter.

Beyond the meter was not only

beyond the industry’s technical

reach, but figuratively and

literally beyond its control,

influence, or interest. In the

process, customers were virtually

disengaged from the upstream

side of the business.

Within their premises, of

course, customers are never more

than a few feet away from a

switch or a plug – and for all

practical matters, that is all

they need to know. They can turn

on the switch or plug in any

device at any time, anywhere,

and draw as much as they want,

for as long as they want it. The

industry made it easy and simple

for them.

Starting in the 1970s, however,

fuel prices began to rise, to

varying degrees in different parts

of the world. In the 1980s, new

concerns about security of

supplies, fuel diversity, and price

volatility were added to the list of

issues to worry about. More

recently, additional issues

including concerns about long-

term energy mix, prices, climate

change, and sustainability have

became pronounced. Gradually

but surely, the industry’s single-

minded focus on the supply side

has given way to a new

appreciation of customer demand

and increased efficiency of energy

utilization.

Many are now convinced that

the cheapest kWh is the one we do

not consume. Energy efficiency is

now considered a major energy



94

resource, and a cost-effective

option. These same visionaries

are now in favor of turning

things around by re-engaging

the disengaged

consumers.

A mong noteworthy

examples of this is the

evolution of thinking at the

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission (FERC). In an

interview with The New York

Times,2 FERC chairman Jon

Wellinghoff said, ‘‘The energy

future of the U.S. looks radically

different from its past,’’ partly

because consumers will become

‘‘active parts of the grid,

providing energy via their own

solar panels or wind turbines, a

system called distributed

generation; stabilizing the grid by

adjusting demand through

intelligent appliances or behavior

modification, known as demand

response; and storing energy for

various grid tasks.’’ Mr.

Wellinghoff is not only

supportive of such schemes but

believes that ‘‘consumers should

get paid to provide these

services’’ (see sidebar).

Excerpted from NY Times, Nov. 29, 2010

�‘‘I believe that for markets to be compe�‘‘We’re doing what we can to the extent tha

becoming part of wholesale markets.’’�‘‘To the extent that you can put demand r

system is stressed — you can reduce sub�‘‘If a battery or a dishwasher or a water he

and it takes the generator a minute to resproviding a better service.’’�‘‘We’re reviewing the economic benefi

provide to the grid.’’ &


While such ideas are not

necessarily new, coming from

FERC’s chairman they get

noticed. Moreover, FERC has

taken the unusual step of actively

promoting these ideas, not just

through public pronouncements

but through a number of orders,

which in no uncertain terms

obliges the regional transmission

organizations (RTOs) and

independent system operators

(ISOs) to implement the concepts

in practice.

T he idea of getting consumers

to become active

participants in the market is still

novel to many in the industry and

even more so to the average

consumer who has been

successfully trained to be a

passive user. The two most

obvious examples of the change

are efforts to make price signals

more transparent and visible to

consumers, including the rising

interest in dynamic pricing.

The second is the growing

interest in demand response (DR)

programs, broadly defined as

anything that influences

consumers to reduce load during

Wellinghoff’s Quotable Quotes

titive, we need to have as many different types ot we have jurisdiction to ensure that there are n

esponse in the system — that is, have consumstantially the amount of fossil fuel generators t

ater or an aluminum pot or a compressor in a Wal-pond, that faster response should be rewarded a

ts of storage and how storage should be com


peak demand periods and/or

shift load to off-peak periods,

usually in response to incentives

or price signals. FERC’s latest

Order 645 affirms FERC’s strong

interest in putting the demand

side of the equation into play.

Dynamic pricing, at its core, is

nothing more than alerting

customers that a kWh consumed

at 2 p.m. on a hot summer

afternoon is not the same as a kWh

consumed at 2 a.m. The former

costs a lot more to generate and

deliver. Under a flat tariff regime,

a kWh is a kWh, no matter when

and where it is consumed.

Huge amounts of resources and

effort are going into conveying

another simple message that any

third grader intuitively

understands: cut back all but your

most essential usage during

periods when electricity is scarce

and expensive to generate and

deliver – namely, during peak

demand periods – or be prepared

to pay a premium (Figure 1).

What makes this simple

message complicated is that for

over a century, consumers were

encouraged to use as much as

f resources in those markets as possible.’’o barriers to distributed generation

ers control their loads at times when thehat are needed to relieve that stress.’’Mart can respond on a microsecond basis,

higher payment because, in fact, it’s

pensated for the various services it can



[(Figure_1)TD$FIG]

Figure 1: What Demand Response Can Achieve

D

they wanted, whenever they

wanted it, and with flat tariffs that

told them all kilowatt-hours are

the same. Now, we are trying to

tell them, forget about what we

told you before. Starting

tomorrow, we are going to charge

you more when it costs us more to

generate and deliver the juice. It

may be a simple message, but try

explaining it to the average

disengaged consumer and see

how far it goes.

D. Intermittent

This requirement should come

as no surprise to anyone remotely

familiar with the current and

future trends affecting the power

sector globally. Renewable energy

resources, which traditionally

played a marginal role – the

exception being hydro generation,

where available – now comprise

the fastest-growing component of

new capacity additions in a


number of key markets. While the

phenomenon was limited to a

handful of wealthy countries in the

past, it has gained acceptance

among many developing

countries. China, for example,

surpassed the U.S. as the country

with the largest installed wind

capacity in 2010, as China invests

heavily in wind and other

renewable resources.

W hat is more profound is

that in many key markets,

including the U.S., renewable

generation resources are expected

to be the biggest or among the

biggest sources of new capacity

being installed into the indefinite

future. This represents a radical

departure from the historical

trends. In California, for example,

new renewables – not counting

existing hydro – are expected to

provide one-third of retail sales

by 2020, in response to a state-

level mandate. More than half of

the U.S. states now have similar


mandatory renewable portfolio

standards (RPS), which will drive

the rapid penetration of

renewables through 2020 and

beyond.

Many countries are pushing

even harder. The European Union

has vowed to meet 20 percent of

its energy – not electricity – needs

from renewables by 2020, a goal

that appears within reach.

Renewables are projected to

account for an amazing 80 percent

of Germany’s electricity demand

by 2050 as it phases out its current

fleet of nuclear power plants. A

growing number of countries are

progressing towards having

double-digit renewable in their

electricity mix within a decade or

so.

Setting aside the issue of how

much, how fast, and at what cost,

renewables – with the exception

of hydro generation and

geothermal energy – tend to be

intermittent and unpredictable.

Intermittency and

unpredictability pose significant

operational challenges and risks

on grid operators. And the scale of

these challenges rises once

renewables move from marginal

to significant contributors on the

supply side. As documented in

numerous studies, intermittency

and unpredictability entail costs

and could have detrimental

effects on the reliability and

operability of the grid. This puts

new demands on the grid – and is

among the compelling reasons for

wanting a smarter, more versatile,

and more integrated grid. As we

approach and pass thresholds

when one-third or more of



Table 1: Five-Tier Price Scheme for Residential Customers in SCE’s Service Area (ineffect October 2009)Source: Southern California Edison Company.

Tier Price Cents/kWha Baseline Allowanceb

Tier 1 11.808 0–100%

Tier 2 13.741 101–130%

Tier 3 23.334 131–200%

Tier 4 26.833 201–300%

96

generation is intermittent and

non-dispatchable, the traditional

means of balancing supply and

demand becomes impractical and

the traditional role of the grid as a

one-way delivery conduit

becomes obsolete.

Tier 5 30.334 >300%

Baseline allowance is determined by applicable climate zone; higher allowances apply to high temperature zones,
E. Distributed lower for mild coastal zones.a For low-income customers, applicable prices for the first three tiers are 8.533, 10.668 and 18.051 cent/kWh
respectively with tier 3 rate applied to all usage above 130% of baseline allowance.b Link to SCE’s Baseline Allocation table: http://www.sce.com/CustomerService/billing/tiered-rates/baseline-chart-

map.htm.

There are a number of reasons

to expect distributed generation

(DG) to finally catch on after being

discussed for many years. Rapid

technological advancements and

falling costs, of course, are part of

the explanation. But so are other

factors including gradually rising

costs of traditional supply-side

options, continued improvements

in efficiency of appliances and

devices, and more stringent

building codes and standards.

The confluence of these powerful

and inexorable trends will

inevitably lead to growing

penetration of DG.

L et’s examine a few of these

trends, starting with

gradually rising electricity costs.

Rising fuel costs, increased

restrictions on use of cheap but

environmentally damaging fuels

such as coal, and growing

penetration of renewable

generation resources will

eventually lead to higher costs of

power. The industry’s days of

reaping economies of scale or

scope by building bigger and

more efficient generation are

behind us. Electricity costs are

likely to rise, not fall, in the future

– even with the current glut of

non-conventional gas at

historically low prices.


Combining this trend with

falling costs of many DGs – say,

rooftop PV panels, solar hot water

heating systems, and ground-

source heat pumps – suggests that

the cost crossover cannot be far

away for many consumers in

many parts of the world. And if

one believes that per customer

electricity consumption might

have reached saturation levels in

many developed countries and

may possibly be declining, then

generating a growing proportion

of one’s energy needs locally

becomes even more compelling.

T his is already a reality in

high-cost states such as

Hawaii, which has one of the

highest average retail electricity

prices in the U.S. If a utility-

supplied kWh costs 30 cents and

one generated from a rooftop PV

panel costs 15 cents, one does not

need to do a lot of sophisticated

modeling to reach the conclusion

that the latter is cost-effective.

Adding available tax credits and

other incentives makes it even

more of a bargain. The real

surprise is why one does not

encounter more PVs, more solar


hot water heaters, and more heat

pumps in high-price regions.

The economics of DG are

equally compelling in sunny and

high-cost California, where

customers of the state’s three

major investor-owned utilities

face rising tiered rates (Table 1).

Many with large consumption

routinely fall into the 4th or 5th

tiers, where the applicable rates

are even higher than in Hawaii, at

30–50 cents/kWh, depending on

the local utility. In this case, PV

panels at 15 cents/kWh are a

bargain and will recover their

investment costs in a relatively

short time. Big consumers, who

pay these higher rates, tend to

have bigger homes, bigger roofs,

and can – as a rule – afford the

investments in DG with

reasonable payback periods.

Speaking of California, the

regulators are pushing the

concept of zero net energy (ZNE)

buildings, where a typical

dwelling is expected to generate

as much as it consumes. As

currently envisioned, this

requirement is to apply to new

residential buildings starting in


http://info.bismarckstate.edu/ceti/energy



D

2020 and be extended to new

commercial buildings by 2030. The

European Commission has

proposed similar concepts, under

passive home and near zero

energy labels. It amounts to the

same, gradually increasing on-site

generation while slashing

consumption, resulting in an

eventual crossover and achieving

virtual self-sufficiency.

F or those who think this is a

far-fetched idea, California

Gov. Jerry Brown is talking about

12 GW of DG in the Golden State

by 2025. That would be equivalent

to building a dozen 1,000 MW

nuclear power plants – giving a

new meaning, and scale, to DG.

F. Two-way

The prevailing industry

paradigm has always been large

central power stations connected

to major load centers through a

transmission and distribution

network acting as a one-way

conduit, delivering power to load

centers. But a one-way electric

conduit connecting consumers to

large central power stations in

remote locations increasingly

appears out of synch with

growing penetration of DG,

increasing amounts of renewable

generation spread around the

network, and lower per capita

consumption levels through

schemes such as ZNE and passive

homes.

Moving ahead, it is not

inconceivable to imagine an

increasing number of consumers

generating some or most of their

needs from on-site and DG


sources, feeding the excess

generation to the grid during

certain hours, while relying on the

grid for any shortfalls during

other hours. Examples such as

this illustrate the need for the grid

to act as a two-way conduit,

serving as a facilitator, an

aggregator, a stabilizer, and an

enabler, allowing millions of

individual customers to become

net producers or consumers,

depending on the prevailing

prices, costs, and other variables.

One of the ironic aspects of a

ZNE-compliant future is that

consumers will be significantly

more dependent on the services

provided by the grid – namely its

ability to absorb the excess

generation during certain hours

while filling the power

deficiencies during certain other

hours – while net volumetric per

capita consumption may be

negligible. Under such a scenario,

the definition of service and the

unit of measurement, volumetric

kWh consumption, will have to be

changed. Service will no longer be

measured or priced based on the

number of kWhs consumed but


on connectivity3 and the demands

placed on the grid.

G. Prices to devices

The final major driver of

change, and another compelling

reason for a smarter grid, is a

growing sense that to make

further progress on energy

efficiency and encourage rational

utilization of electricity, we must

move beyond the meter, into

customers’ premises, and interact

directly with devices, appliances,

and controls in ways that are

acceptable to consumers and

consistent with their priorities,

needs, and expectations.

This has always been an

insurmountable challenge,

especially in dealing with

residential and small commercial

consumers. Electricity represents a

relatively small percentage of their

typical disposable income, for

residential users, and a negligible

component of their operational

costs, for small commercial

customers. This makes it difficult

for them to pay sufficient attention

to how electricity is used, misused,

mismanaged, or wasted within

their premises. At the same time,

consumers are increasingly

sensitive about their privacy, and

do not wish the big brother

watching over their every move.

Many energy efficiency experts

believe that widespread

implementation of dynamic

pricing in conjunction with the

introduction of a host of enabling

technologies will support the

‘‘prices-to-devices’’ revolution,

which in turn, promises to unleash



98

the full potential of smart prices

delivered to smart devices

through smart meters resulting in

more efficient utilization of

electricity.

T he basics are trivial. Cost-

reflective dynamic prices,

delivered through smart meters to

electricity-consuming devices

within customers’ premises, can –

in principle – lead to more rational

use of electricity. For example, a

pool pump can be told to stand idle

for a few hours during hot

afternoon hours when prices tend

to be high, and resume service

when prices drop in late afternoon

hours with negligible impact on

customers’ needs. Likewise, a

refrigerator’s de-icing cycle can be

adjusted to skip the peak demand

hours. Many discretionary loads,

for example, dishwashing,

laundry, and drying can also be

done during off-peak hours.

Thermostats on central air

conditioners can be slightly

adjusted without significant

impact on comfort. The list of what

can be done is indeed long.

But implementing such simple

and cost-effective schemes has not

been easy to date, and the list of

reasons and obstacles is equally

long. Installing smart meters and

introducing dynamic prices is a

necessary first step, but will not be

enough. Experts have many ideas

on what may work and what may

not in dealing with the ultimate

complex system, consumer choice

and behavior.

One thing, however, is sure.

Typical consumers have little

time or interest in monitoring

variable electricity prices and


even less motivation to run

around adjusting thermostat

settings or programming their

devices to save a few pennies or

dollars. They would prefer a

lower bill to a higher one, but

there is only so much they will do

to get it.

There may be two ways to get

around this formidable human

barrier. One may be the so-called

‘‘set-and-forget’’ option,4 where

consumers are encouraged to set

or adjust the settings or

parameters once – or infrequently

– and forget about them. For

example, a programmable

thermostat may fit this model.

Many people only adjust the

settings biannually, for example,

in the spring and the fall.

The other option may be to

allow a third party or an

intermediary to minimize their

energy usage and costs – perhaps

on the basis of a shared-saving

scheme. This, however, would

only be feasible if many small or

smallish loads were to be

aggregated and collectively

managed – for example, in a

community, an apartment tower, a


shopping mall, an office building,

or a hospital or university. There

are many reasons why this option

generally has not taken off as

commercially viable.

F ailure in the past, of course,

should not deter us from

trying to succeed in the future.

There are many, including major

manufacturers of appliances and

consumer electronic products,

who believe they can overcome

some of the remaining obstacles

with the introduction of built-in

sensors, which can receive and

respond to variable prices,

adjusting usage on cue from

consumers. There are also a

number of well-positioned

companies with massive presence

in practically every home and

office in developed countries who

may be able to break through this

formidable barrier.5

Having variable prices talking

to smart devices is the necessary

first step – and sooner or later

someone will figure out how to

make better use of the important

price signals in ways that would

bring prices to devices revolution

to full fruition.

IV. Where Do We Gofrom Here?

The preceding discussion has

highlighted some of the key

applications of the Smart Grid,

which explains the high level of

interest and investment going into

it. However, implementing these

schemes and achieving their

purported benefits will not be easy

nor can it be taken for granted.



D

O n the whole, Smart Grid,

and its many sub-

components, have gained so

much momentum in the past

few years that there is no longer

a question of if we are going

to go forward, but rather how and

what are we going to do with it

once we have all the components

in place.

And the answer to the question

posed by the title of the article –

what’s so smart about the Smart

Grid? – is that fundamental

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drivers for change within the

industry make the existing grid

inadequate for what we want it to

achieve today, and even more

inadequate for what we expect

from it in the future.&

Endnotes:

1. Excerpted from the author’snewsletter, EEnergy Informer, Feb.2011.

2. Making the Consumer an ActiveParticipant in the Grid, N.Y. TIMES, Nov.29, 2010.

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3. A similar re-definition of servicehas occurred in the mobile telephonebusiness, where service is nolonger measured in prices andnumber of minutes talking on thephone, but the bandwidth andthe speed of download and datatransfer, which is increasinglydemanded by sophisticated mobiledevices.

4. Refer to chapter in Smart Grid bookby the same title.

5. Honeywell, for example, alreadyhas a massive presence in the U.S.with thermostats installed in 150million homes and 10 millionbuildings.

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so what's so smart about the smart grid?

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