In theory all this obsession with weight and aircraft design is explained by the projection of carrying 1 extra kilo, or part thereof, per sector km, per annum, over the lifetime of the airframe and calculating the operating cost penalty in fuel etc of that extra weight, sorry, mass being the new buzzword for weight!
However, the sight of the slim Jack/Jaqui Spratt being robbed of hard currency at check-in, just because their baggage is 1 kilo over the airline limit, whilst the the blubber mountain behind them in the queue with "legal" baggage limit is allowed through unpenalised, is totally illogical if the same cost per kg/km rule is applied.
Maybe Samoan Airlines will start a trend, rapidly followed by M'OL, Squeezy and the rest?
One can discuss technical fixes til hell freezes over, viz big clunky switches, protections various against hot batteries, overloads, high drainage rates, essential power supplies and all the other tech stuff which seems to excite some of our profession.
Let's wake up and smell the coffee, or the acrid fumes of burning Li-ion batteries! This whole exercise, if not proposed by an EADS "mole" to scupper the 787 project, was undertaken to shave off the very last kilo of bare weight as required by the beancounters, who obviously don't have a clue as to the anthropometric weight {mass if you insist!} trend of the SLF we see daily and which will only get worse in the forseeable future.
Stop looking for exotic "techie" fixes, put in a decent set of type/time proven batteries, accept the penalty in operating costs over the lifetime of the airframes, which is probably limited anyway by the alleged delamination of the carbonfibre wing and put the whole thing down to bitter experience.
Whatever happened to the K I S S principle in aviation design? Is the industry being run by whippersnappers with the latest I-device but precious little commonsense when it comes to engineering? The lessons of AF447 and the design philosophy are still being debated and yet the USA's 'best' allows this sort of idea to pass the drawing board and get to the metal-cutting and prototype stage.
All I can say is, as an old-timer with a few professional flynig hours behind me, shame on you! The Comet, DC-10 and other designers must be turning in their graves if they only knew the direction their 21st century successors were heading, blinded by the arrogance which comes with overconfidence.