The too-smart-for-its-own-good grid

New technologies intended to boost reliance on renewable energy could destabilize the power grid if they're not matched with careful pricing policies. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ' In the last few years, electrical utilities have begun equipping their customers? homes with new meters that have Internet connections and increased computational capacity. One envisioned application of these 'smart meters' is to give customers real-time information about fluctuations in the price of electricity, which might encourage them to defer some energy-intensive tasks until supply is high or demand is low. Less of the energy produced from erratic renewable sources such as wind and solar would thus be wasted, and utilities would less frequently fire up backup generators, which are not only more expensive to operate but tend to be more polluting, too. Recent work by researchers in MIT's Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, however, shows that this policy could backfire. If too many people set appliances to turn on, or devices to recharge, when the price of electricity crosses the same threshold, it could cause a huge spike in demand; in the worst case, that could bring down the power grid.