The UK government has commited to getting smart electric and gas meters into every home, but the potential savings are small. People won't necessarily change their habits just because they can see how much energy they are using. They may just turn off a few lights and that is just a few watts for an LED bulb. It may save the power companies some money on reading meters, but it will take a long time to get the money back.
This story is about transmitting instructions to appliances over the power cables. That would allow smart appliances to be told when it's best for them to operate based on available energy. The problem there is that most appliances are dumb and won't get replaced for years. It's probably a bigger deal for industry where there are potential big savings to be made.
We are making progress in that appliances are getting more efficient, but people generally only replace them when they have to. We probably have more electrical devices than ever before with computers, consoles, PVRs plus all the IoT devices. It all adds up. Ideally we want to have less stuff, but gadgets are so cheap that we are tempted and will keep upgrading as the next generation appears, creating lots of e-waste. Companies will want to expand their markets to countries that are not already saturated.
I do have hope for the future, but we will have to accept changes in the long run.
Image from Wikimedia.
