What do consumers think of the smart grid? Um, not much

There's a new poll out from Harris Interactive gauging consumers' perception of the smart grid and smart meters. Turns out they don't have much of one. In fact, close to 70 percent of them have never heard of the smart grid and about 63 percent haven't a clue about smart meters. Those who ARE aware of the smart grid are concerned about the security around it, which is another thing that technology players should be worrying about. ZDNet Editorial Director Larry Dignan dissects the results further over in this post at our SmartPlanet sister blog site.

This reinforces my believe that in order for all this to work, it has to be transparent. I mean, come on: Just because you CAN monitor your energy usage and adjust it from a remote location doesn't mean that you WILL do it. And how many people you know are excited about paying to update their thermostats or other gadgets necessary to start collecting energy data. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?