I was beyond exasperation when, at a neighborhood get-together last night, a chemical engineer with decades of experience announced authoritatively that the North American transmission grid was old, decrepit and not intelligent in any way.

Electrical engineers and technology providers, feel free to chime in here. I sure could have used the help last night.

Perhaps you will have better luck than I did in my 10-minute, 21st century transmission lesson, none of which swayed my neighbor's opinion in any way.

In the absence of information, misinformation steps stealthily in, and becomes embedded in the public consciousness.

Does it behoove us as an industry, then, to educate far beyond the end-consumer touch points? It seems to me that merely focusing new consumer education on the smart meter and the ways in which it will assist them in managing their energy usage, while important, doesn't go far enough. We, as an industry, need to build out from that important touch point, and continue to educate the 21st century electricity consumer about the other important aspects of the electricity delivery system, from generation to transmission to distribution to reliability and cost.

It's too easy to get blinkered into believing that everyone knows these things. And that's a perilous assumption to make.

Ideas? I'd love to discuss them.

krowland@energycentral.com