The Smart Grid- A better way to charge you more for the same service

Think of the smart grid like the highway system - there are peak times (traffic jams) and times when it seems the highways are deserted (2 AM till 5 AM). And the smart grid is going the way LOTS of cities want to regulate your travel: you go to work during peak traffic times we will charge you more to get there - the implied idea is that you will go to work when it is convenient for THEM to lessen the traffic and not for you .

So your job opens at 8, we want you to travel at 5:30 to avoid the extra rush hour toll fee for using the road that you paid for. Social engineering.

With the "smart grid" it allows them to charge you for peak usage during the day - because now they CAN. Umm peak demand for air conditioning is between 3 and 6 in the afternoon, lets charge more to people to turn down the demand to cool down their house when it is the hottest park of the day - because we can.

We're not going to build more power plants (never mind that 50 million more people will be in the USA in 10 years or so, we can conserve our way out of this problem) but charging extra money to try and get people to not use the air conditioning when they need it to most will work! Complain? Forget it, the regulators say this is proper and we can do it - and we can earn another 10% above what we would have - because its good for society! (And now add in the government overhead to help the low income people afford this extra costs so 80% of the others will end up paying even more to pay for this subsidy and the 100%+ government overhead costs to run the program).
And with no extra power on the grid - remember no new plants - then they WILL lower the voltage down to all to (likely around to 98 or so to keep the system from collapsing. Wind power? Sure, on the hottest days there is usually NO WIND so they sit idle. At least the birds won't hit them.) Equipment that is designed for a certain voltage will run less efficiently and will electrically internally fail faster.
It will mean a few hundred billion dollars spent to allow the government to tell the utilities that they can charge more during peak times to change social and natural behavior - and of course the Government will get more since they tax on income (sure, I want to pay 20% more for clean energy!) and if you charge more people during peak time for something they need to use then, which allows the Government to get more money.

Just don't eat dinner between 5 PM and 8 PM when electrical demand is high since that is when most people cook, start cooking all your meals after 8 PM to save electrical costs -  its not our problem you don't get enough sleep since you have to get up at 4 AM to avoid the tolls that kick in at 6 AM. Oh yes, don't turn on your lights during the winter. Demand is high because people want light in their houses then.

They are going to micromanage you life in your house now - and the roads have been the proving ground.