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The U.S. electric grid is not smart. It was not planned and constructed to be able to meet the new constraints, variables and uncertainties that the future holds. The central system architecture and operating schemes haven't really changed in a century. Long term construction and operations plans were founded upon the availability of extra capacity and redundancy to passively withstand short-term variation of demand, longer term growth and outages of lines and equipment. The traditional tools to achieve adequacy and reliability, additions to conventional generation, transmission and distribution assets, aren't as viable now. Already, electric utility performance indicators eroding: economy, reliability, security, asset value, profitability, sustainability, and service quality.
Steven E. Collier (Wed,) studied this question.