The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative recently released a report suggesting the country needs to overhaul the regulations overseeing the electrical grid.

The report looks critically at the idea that the electrical grid is in imminent danger of collapse and finds little evidence to back up such claims, insisting that the grid is already well-enough equipped to handle the influx of distributed generation systems - such as solar installations - and electric vehicles.

However, the grid does face some challenges such as the difficulty of adding new transmission capacity, in which too many different voices hold veto power and no one authority can approve new power lines.

Perhaps more important, though, is the development of the smart grid, which to this point has been addressed in an ad hoc fashion without taking full advantage of its potential to change the way in which the electricity market functions.

At the same time, smart grid software collects massive amounts of information without substantially addressing the major security concerns that arise from this. The electrical grid as a whole also faces significant danger from cyber attacks, and no agency is currently responsible for protecting it.

The report suggests that the U.S. give that responsibility to the Department of Homeland Security and that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission be allowed to make ultimate decisions regarding transmission projects.