Electricity generation and distribution to your home via the 'smart grid' is extraordinarily inefficient.  Depending on the means of production, approximately 35% of the electricity generated is lost or wasted.  Approximately an additional 10% is lost or wasted in transit to your home.  Even though it is lost, it still has both a negative financial and environmental impact.  Something has to be done to fix it.

Consumers will accept the smart home when it does something to benefit them directly at an acceptable cost.  They will also need to see several of their 'neighbors' with it.  While the idea of the smart home encompasses many areas, such as, security, home monitoring, computing and entertainment, smart energy has the most social and economic impact for all of us.  

Source: Dwell Magazine