Power Play

In Manassas, Zplug recently added Internet phone service to its offerings (charging $30 for unlimited local and long-distance calls), but officials have enough to be worried about these days just getting customers hooked up with Web access. Fewer than 200 accounts have been activated, while 1,350 locals remain on a waiting list, in part because of start-up problems with Prospect Street Broadband, a venture firm selected to handle Zplug's day-to-day operations, and in part because utility workers are still installing the network. City officials expect to name a new investor sometime in May.

Whether or not Zplug or any other new BPL service ultimately succeeds, the technology will still help utility companies. With data capabilities in place on the grid, energy use can be monitored from a central office (rather than by meter readers) and better managed during periods of peak demand. Outages can be detected and addressed immediately.

And if BPL does take off, it is likely to do what new competition usually does for any consumer technology: lead to better services and better prices all around. In the end, the choice might come down to trust. Huffman says he's glad he gets his speedy new Internet service from the electric company. Cable service can go down. His power, he points out, almost never goes out.