As usual I have also done some meta-level thinking, i.e. thinking about the causes and effects of watching these YouTube videos. What I came up with is an illustration of the process leading from the opaque topic cloud via YouTube to a transparent mental picture. The question whether this illustration is complete or even adequate I cannot anwser, but what I can say is that it reflects my own situation rather well.
The first video - and my favourite - demonstrates Cisco’s vision of a revolutionized energy system. Of course the video’s content is a little coloured towards Cisco’s products and services that generate value in the smart grid change process. However, this coloring also has a positive effect: The illustration is very plastic. But watch yourself!
In contrast, the second video - published by the Scientific American - is a little more unbiased and tries to explain the smart grid movement from both a technical and a historic perspective. I think, the video gives a good introduction to the topic despite being very compact and reduced in content.
I hope these two videos provide a good motivation for working in the area of smart grids and energy systems.
Doing research in this area myself now for about one month my excitement and couriousity for the topic is always increasing, as are the questionmarks in my head ;-).