Last night, Michael Hathaway of Tiga Energy Services brought us up to speed on the real story behind Smart Grid, which his organization sees as “a business strategy, not a technology.” He pointed out several pitfalls that utilities are walking into, not the least of which is a speculative investment-driven bubble formed by disruptive technology vendors who are largely ignorant of the history and state of the electric utility industry. Efforts towards creation of parallel, proprietary two-way communication networks into customer homes will likely be abandoned once it is recognized that privacy and security concerns will outweigh any potential benefits.
Here’s the slidedeck from Michael’s presentation:
EFF Austin (Sep 7, 2011) – Michael Hathaway – Smart Grid and the Internet
