This article is a little more utility and a little less GIS, but it is interesting and it brings up points and illustrates ideas that I have bee reading about more an more. The basic run down of the article is that because of private utilities in Mexico they may experience a boom in Smart Grid use. Anytime we see an increase in Smart Grid is good news. I think that the technology is very important to the long term sustainability of any utility company and making the company more efficient makes a nice impact on the corporate bottom line.
I think that we will see a lot more use of Smart Grid tech across the world. For developing countries jumping straight to this technology and skip over all of the infrastructure bog down that has plagued other countries for decades. I am reading more and more articles about programs in developing countries that are integrating alternative power very nicely into their rural communities. This makes a lot of sense now that costs for wind and solar have dropped to the levels that they are at. Ultimately these power methods will reduce the cost of power across those countries because they will not have the same infrastructure needs that everyone else does. No more substations, no more transmission lines, less paperwork. They can just upgrade small rural communities.
In developed countries people will benefit simply because they will reduce paperwork needs and cost. I do not think anybody would complain about that.