Will we all be Eenergy Day Traders?

Over on Terrapass this morning, Adam Stein opines on whether all the data to be offered consumers by the smart grid will be too much information. Considering the news out this morning that Google is offering software to show home users "almost real-time energy use," it's a fair question. I know that Google, as the center of my online life, already offers me way more information than I could feasibly use in a day, week, month, year or lifetime. Adding a minute-by-minute accounting of my energy use to that constant data stream (and to the almost 1200 articles in my RSS reader) scares the beejesus out of me.

But I think Stein's concern is a tad misplaced. Without a doubt we will have the ability to keep track of and manage our home energy use via iPhone app or text message, but it's not going to be required. The more likely outcome is that the software to track and report all that data will come with whatever doohickey consumers buy or get from their utilities and that software will come with pre-installed defaults that have been designed to save an average amount of energy. All the settings will of course be tweakable, and some people will certainly micro-manage their devices in an effort to reduce utility bills or be more comfortable. But I don't think we'll be awash in a sea of technical, overwhelming information about what our refrigerator is dong. Instead, some program will tell our AC to shut off when our dryer comes on, thereby balancing out the load.

It's a future I, for one, am looking forward to.