The thrilling Super Bowl matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers will probably be best remembered for the 34-minute power outage that occurred at the beginning of the second half. Officials are still trying to determine what exactly caused the power outage—so far, the root cause has been described as an electric abnormality in the sensing equipment. Whatever the cause, the incident has sparked debate over the health of the nation’s power grid.

Last week’s ASP blog post on the smart grid gave a general overview of its capabilities and highlighted some of its benefits over the current power grid structure. Brad Plumer touched on this in The Washington Post on February 4. According to Andres Carvallo, Executive Vice President of Proximity Inc., the smart grid could have prevented the Super Bowl blackout: the power would have switched from one source to another when problems were detected, rather than just relying on a single transmitter.

Smart grid enthusiasts will look at the Super Bowl blackout and clamor for a more rapid installation of the smart grid. However, there are several concerns with building and deploying the smart grid that have national security implications for the U.S. One is price: a 2011 Electric Power Research Institute report noted that it would cost between $338 billion to $476 billion to deploy smart grid technology through 2030. Although the same report stated that the potential benefits that the smart grid could yield could exceed $1.3 trillion, given the nation’s current economic climate and political gridlock, the up-front costs may prove to be an obstacle to quicker deployment.

Another issue is consumer privacy. Critics have raised concerns that third parties could access personal and proprietary business data, and because utilities own the meters, they have increased access to this data as well. The installation of smart meters could be seen as a violation of the fourth amendment of the Constitution, which guards against unlawful searches and seizures. Local government installation of smart meters in private citizens’ homes brings this issue to the forefront of the smart grid debate, as this recent story out of Naperville, Illinois attests.

Hacking is another major concern with the smart grid. The grid is centrally networked and critical to our economy, so it would be an ideal target to both foreign and domestic cyber attacks. “No system is 100 percent secure,” notes research engineer Joe Loomis. Coming at a time when the Department of Energy was just recently the victim of a cyber attack, the issue of cyber security must be adequately addressed when deploying the smart grid.

The U.S. is continuing to invest in modernizing the current power grid structure, and by 2015, more than half of all U.S. households are expected to receive smart meters. However, a significant portion of electricity consumers are still unfamiliar with the smart grid, presenting a daunting challenge to its development.

Despite the concerns, the smart grid holds great promise. Smart grid technology should make the U.S. electrical grid more resilient against power demand fluctuations and extreme weather. It will also better integrate renewable energy and energy efficiency. Although the upfront investment is significant, the long-term payoff is even greater.

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