With the ever approaching fervor of the SmartGrid, there's one thing that is yet to be truly settled, and it effects every consumer, energy producer, and power-related companies at once.  What's worse, this all encompasing vapor is due to be solidified in the next few weeks... maybe a long as two months.

What I'm talking about is not the SmartGrid itself.  Rather, its the collection, transmission, and security of the SmartGrid the very core of how data goes from your house to the power company.  Most of the technology in the market is heavily geared to cutting-edge proprietary mesh networks and either wired or wireless backhaul of data.  It mostly works fairly well.  Most of the mesh networks do ok... but the backhaul can be difficult.  There are even a few companies that offer dedicated point-to-point wireless communication for EACH meter, no meshing... pure public wireless(read cellphone) backhaul from each meter.

And that's just talking about the actual pipe to the power comany.... that's not even getting into how all the data is collected and stored at the power meter itself, how you recover that data from the meter, and how to securely transmit that data back to the power company.  So, lets look at the whole SmartGrid from meter to guy doing your billing....  I'll show you a simple chain as it currently resides

• Power meter reads current pulses
• Data is stored in the meter according to either ANSI standards(by far the most common) or proprietary methods
• Company opens data connection to either an aggregator or to the meter itself(POTS, ethernet, public wireless, plc, you name it)
• Company then initiates a communication protocol to speak to the meter (Once again either ANSI specs ...  C12.18,21,22 or proprietary) over the carrier connection.
• Company collects data
• Company bills customers

Now, that seems rather straight forward right?  But what if someone like a SmartGrid Rambus comes on the scene and gets a proprietary standard into the policy of the SmartGrid because of the compressed time frame?  You get a single company that has a MONOPOLY on your power data simply because they get things tweaked into their own favor through lobbyists and harried meetings.

We need to keep an eye on this, because this isn't just theoretical.  These battles are being fought now(many late nights were had in D.C. over this very issue this week), and there are some companies that are looking to abuse the push for a SmartGrid to ensure their Company, and their Company alone will be the ones who control the SmartGrid.

This is important.... this is happening now....  this will affect us, our children, and our grandchildren....  We need to think this through and not just jump on some bandwagon...  We don't need to be led down the path to ensuring a single, private company will be the ones controlling OUR SmartGrid.