Ironically enough, on the same day, my son selected from his school library My Light by Molly Bang, a book about energy for children. I admit that reading this grade-school level book helped me retroactively understand more of what I heard during the Silver Spring luncheon. Oh, I'm no dummy, but I'm just not all that familiar with how energy really turns my light-bulbs on.

It certainly feels like we could turn on our television whenever we like and have it broadcast our shows. I'm used to just flipping a switch to illuminate a room. And I'm very dependent on my computer. I just assume my refrigerator will keep chilling my food, my TiVo will keep recording my television shows, and my phone will always be charged. Most of the time, the energy is there.

But last week, it wasn't.

The lights at the gym went off while my younger son worked out in preparation for the gymnastics competitive season. Initially it was kind of fun. I laughed and told the people sitting next to me that I had just gone to a luncheon about the smart grid. We chuckled. One parent boasted that he lives on a hospital grid, so never has to suffer power outages. But then we learned the power was shut down because there was a refinery fire. Suddenly things were much more serious.

We evacuated the area and although the commute took a little longer than normal, my family ended up back at home, thankfully to a fully-powered house. Meanwhile, around 13,000 customers lost their power. It was restored within a couple hours.

But a few days later, our home was without power. At first it was a few brief periods of black-out, but then the power was off the entire night. "Damaged equipment," we were told.

That night without power was nerve-wracking. I shut down my computer to preserve what was left of the battery life. I realized that without power, my hands were tied. Both my husband and I make our living on our computers. What would happen if we couldn't use them?

I tried to locate flashlights (using a kindle-book-light to lead my way) but failed because no matter how many times I put fresh-battery-flashlights in every room, they end up magically disappearing thanks to my boys' creative play. I ended up using a headlamp as a night-light for the boys.

Fortunately the power was restored the next morning. But having it gone made me realize just how much I take it for granted.

Silver Spring Networks creates the infrastructure for the smart grid. They work with PG&E to create solutions so that we won't have blackouts.

Little by little, more homes are being outfitted with the smart meter. The concept of having a "smart" system is to provide instant feedback - both for the consumer and for the power company.

With the old meter, an employee would manually check it to see how much power a given home had consumed over the past month. The resident would get that information in a lump sum. So would the power company. In fact, the power company didn't know whether the power to a given home was operational at any moment; they only knew about problems if three or more residents called in to complain.

With the smart meter, data is available in real time. Residents see the power use in hourly chunks. This itemized feedback can help both the consumer and PG&E determine how best to conserve and allot energy.

Through PG&E's website, customers can see when their particular home uses the most energy, and can change their habits accordingly. Graphs showing comparisons to like-homes in the area can help a consumer know whether their energy conservation is on-par with their neighbors. Consumers can turn off everything for an hour to identify whether their energy use still remains high from "vampire power" (microwaves, televisions, toaster ovens.)

Meanwhile, with next-to-real-time data, PG&E will be able to better predict periods of peak usage to avoid using the expensive "peaker plants" and to know when to divert power to the more renewable energy sources. For example, although harnessing power through wind and solar cells is great, the energy they produce is during the day, not during those evening and night peak-usage hours. With "smart appliances" that will come on the market shortly, consumers will be able to program tasks like the dishwasher and the refrigerator's freezing cycle to occur during non-peak hours. PG&E can then observe the trends to see how to distribute the power. The customers, the appliances, and the power plant all must work together via the smart grid data to use energy more efficiently.

I use an iGo charger, and am curious about Belkin's line of conservation outlets to help better manage my energy needs. Some of these plugs either have timed-use functions or turn off completely when they aren't needed. (Meanwhile, "always on" outlets enable things like the TiVo to keep recording shows, and the fridge to continue chilling your food.)

I have a smart meter, but until today didn't actually check out the data. I'm a bit surprised to see we use more energy than the average household, although with many computers, most of which are on constantly, I guess I'm not so surprised after all. Although the data is indeed hourly, the report doesn't occur until around 36 hours later. So today on 11/17 I can see the data for 11/15 but not 11/16. Apparently the 11/16 data will arrive in my account later today. The webpage states, "Please note that SmartMeter™ usage for today will be available tomorrow between 3-10 pm." For truly instant feedback, I can go outside and look at my Smart Meter. It will display exactly how many kWh I'm using at that moment.

I definitely hope that the smart grid will assist in creating a more sustainable system. I am glad that I have a way to get more precise feedback on my energy use and anticipate I can use this information to better budget, both from an eco and financial perspective.

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Disclaimer: I wrote this post after attending an informational luncheon on behalf of Silver Spring Networks and Mom Central Consulting and received a gift bag and gift card as a thank you for taking the time to participate. Representatives of Silver Spring Networks and PG&E discussed the smart grid with Mom Central participants over lunch. We received a water bottle and other trinkets in addition to our delicious meal. Upon completion of this post I will receive an Amazon gift certificate to thank me for my efforts. My words above are my own. Mentions of Belkin and iGo are from my own research of the energy conservation topic. My Light is a book my son picked out at his school library. My link to it has an affiliate code embedded such that if you purchase it through Amazon I'll get a few cents. "Vampire power" illustration is from iGo.