The FCC is exploring how broadband technologies can help the nation become more energy independent and efficient and be a key factor in the evolution to a smart electrical grid. During a field hearing Monday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and others discussed the role of broadband and the agency's development of a national broadband plan in the nation's quest for energy efficiency and independence.

Genachowski said that one of the goals that the FCC was charged with examining in crafting a national broadband plan was how broadband technologies can advance national purposes including specifically energy independence and efficiency. "The smart grid is something we will hear a lot about," Genachowski said. "Broadband and the smart grid are first cousins." Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, noted that our current electrical grid works hard but not smartly. "The smart grid is nothing more than an electricity Internet," Markey said. He added that broadband technologies will allow renewable energy and other sources of electricity to be managed more effectively and efficiently.

But Jerrold Grochow, a research affiliate with MIT's Energy Initiative and a retired vice president of information services and technology at MIT, warned about the need to take cybersecurity and privacy into consideration as the nation evolves to a smart grid. He said cybersecurity is not a new concern when it comes to the electrical grid, but he said while concerns continue to mount the solutions remain in the future. Grochow added that while a smart grid will require that information be sent to users and providers about the flow of electricity, it also provides opportunities for "those who have malicious interests."