Energy going into the Smart Grid

I found this energy flow chart to be really interesting, it helped put a lot of the smart grid articles into perspective, for me at least. Chart Source: Lawrence Livermore National Lab

What is really amazing is the amount of energy that is lost through the electricity production process (and in transportation applications as well). What most of the articles we read focused on were ways to make the grid smarter, and use less energy at the end point of the system. That's great, and necessary, but the energy we are focused on is actually only a fraction of the energy that goes into the overall process as shown on the chart. A lot of our energy inputs are lost, primarily as waste heat. Perhaps a smarter grid will lead to breakthroughs that will improve energy production further upstream from the meter. The IT based impact on base load power generation is somewhat difficult for me to grasp, but the need for IT in terms of managing more intermittent sources (wind/solar) might lead to breakthroughs in terms of building more effective and efficient base load generation capacity, especially as older coal plants are decommissioned and taken off line in the next ten to twenty years.