More and more utilities are beginning to realize that building large power plants just to handle peak daily and seasonal demand is a very costly way of managing an electricity system.

Existing electricity grids are typically a patchwork of local grids that are simultaneously inefficient, wasteful, and dysfunctional in that they often are unable, for example, to move electricity surpluses to areas of shortages.

The U.S. electricity grid today resembles the roads and highways of the mid-twentieth century before the interstate highway system was built. What is needed today is the electricity equivalent of the interstate highway system.

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I recently wrote a story on the growing popularity of so-called smart appliances that link into utility’s smart grid programs, allowing consumers to manage and cut down on their own power use.

By the end of this year, energy customers in much of Texas can expect the installation of close to 700,000 advanced smart electric meters and corresponding communications systems.   Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC, the state’s largest utility company, and Landis+Gyr, a developer of energy management systems, have already installed more than 350,000 smart meters in Texas.

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