Smart meters coming to a utility near you

After 100 years, the lowly utility meter is poised for a digital upgrade, with the installation of up to 250 million expected over the next six years, according to a new forecast.

Pike Research published on Monday a research report on smart meters that predicts installation to ramp up at a 19 percent annual rate through 2015.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Smart meters use wireless networking to shuttle information back and forth between utilities and customers. So far, the communications link has been used mainly to report back usage for monthly billing, but there are new applications aimed at efficiency.

Consumers can, in some cases, get a real-time read-out of electricity consumption or see a graph of a full day's use. Smart meters are also designed to help consumers take advantage of off-peak rates. Utilities are generally interested in moving usage to off-peak times and running power plants more efficiently.

A person could, for example, schedule a dishwasher to run or charge a plug-in vehicle in the middle of the night. Information from the smart meter signals when cheaper rates are in effect.

Pike's forecast notes that the push to smart meters is global, driven by government interest in energy efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy's smart-grid grant program announced last week is expected to result in 18 million smart meter installations across the nation. About 3.5 percent of the world's meters can be considered "smart," with the number set to grow to 18 percent by 2015.

Despite the spike in installations, there are a number of technical barriers to overcome, including a lack of standards. In particular, there is a "jumble" of different neighborhood-area networking technologies to carry data from homes back to utilities. The most advanced smart meters have the ability to connect to home-area networks.

[G2001]

who manufactures the meters? The same company that rolled out the software?

[Been_there_Saw_it_before]

I had a consulting assignment from Robinton Products in 1983 to rehost their meter reading software from a DEC VAX 780 to an HP 1000. I know that dates me terribly, but this technology is over 25 years old. What is the fuss?

[cp256]

It's GE/NBC/DNC/Obama, look at the meter picture.

[rmva]

If Kindle can use Sprint seamlessly, why can't the utility companies?

[Random_Walk]

...because wireless carriers usually stick to covering cities and major highways. Good luck getting a signal in the middle of, say, Wyoming. ;)

[kieranmullen]

They are more apt to put them in remote areas with different wireless technology in an urban area so they would not have to send someone out to the boonies to read a meter. Manual meter reading is very low tech.

[basraw]

You mean the government will monitor our usage electricity usage even further and see we leave the plasma on 24x7 and tell us to turn it off or face more penalties or fines?

[ikramerica--2008]

Absolutely. You don't need a "smart meter" to tell you to plug in your hybrid at night or run the dishwasher at 3AM. The hybrid will be digital and will be able to do this on it's own, and any dishwasher advanced enough to "talk" to a smart meter is also one that has a built in delay start, a feature available for 30+ years now.

It's all a false convenience designed to take control of your power usage externally in the future. And there will be fines and penalties for disabling them, just as there are fines and penalties for disabling the high pitched door alarms you are forced to install in your own home in Florida if you have a pool. At least those don't phone the police. Yet...

[Random_Walk]

...even worse - it may just decide to turn it off for you.

Personally, I like knowing how much I use, but the "smart" portion needs to stop there.

[streamline35]

Um, your guys' paranoia of the government got in the way of you actually reading the article... power companies (and by your extension, the government) have been able to read your power usage for a long time. The smart meters transfer information back to YOU, so that YOU can see your power usage during the day, and YOU can program what you want to turn on/off when you want it to. The smart meters are all about having the information (that the power companies can already see) come back to YOU.

Next time actually actually comprehend the article, before seeing the words "government" and "energy efficiency" in the same sentence and snapping into crazy mode.

I don't understand why you people are so against energy efficiency anyway. Not only does it make sense from an environmental standpoint, but it makes alot of fiscal sense as well (which one would think republicans would care about). Any way you approach it, it just makes sense to do something like installing a cheap smart meter that can save you alot of money from keeping energy from going to waste. The only think I can think of is that just like with ever other recent issue, republicans just have a knee jerk reaction to disagree and be belligerent about anything the Obama administration is for, no matter how much sense it makes (like the recent bill that keeps the government from doing business with companies that make its employees sign contracts releasing them from liability if employees get raped on the job - seems like a no brainier, and yet there were 30 republican senators against it)

[ikramerica--2008]

No, streamline, you don't get what we are saying.

There is NO NEED for the meter to tell us when "off peak" hours are and report back and forth between the company and our meter. NONE. Off-peak hours, in areas that bill for them differently, are outlined on your freaking bill! They are "after X PM and before Y AM".

Dishwashers (the example used -- somehow I knew that without reading...) already have delay start features. At least the more expensive ones that would in the future be designed to talk to a smart meter. This false claim of trying to save YOU money is ridiculous. What company wants to save the customer money when the customer doesn't mind spending more? No free market company does. Only a pseudo governmental organization with other motives does.

And you, streamline, obviously do not live in California, where there have already been proposals to force "smart thermostats" that take control out of your hands and allow the power company/government to turn down your AC or furnace at THEIR DISCRETION. They wanted to start with business, but it would have spread into homes soon enough via building code revisions (like the kitchen fluorescent fixture codes, high cost ("efficient) furnace and AC codes, etc.). This is not dead, only on the "back burner" until they can get EPA backing to force it on us from a federal level in the name of cutting the dreaded CO2.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/11/MNHDUDAQ3.DTL

So if you think it's paranoia to point out the uselessness of the 2-way "smart" meter to the consumer when it's being sold to us as good for us, but at the same time point out the usefulness of this technology to the government, that's your problem. We are already facing this kind of control in the USA at various levels, all to force us to pray at the alter of Gaia/Climate Change, the new religion designed to create another dark age in the western world.

[G2001]

Answered my own question. BTW, if anyone is interested to learn more about the meter, here is a link from a 3/9/09 article about them.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/128540-ge-to-offer-wimax-smart-meter-solution-through-centerpoint-energy

[MD_Willington]

People need to get past Meters with communication abilities as being the end all of Smart Grid.
Having a meter on your house that has comm abilities does not make the grid any smarter.

The real "smarts" in the grid have been there for years with digital protection relays.
It is the real time control in the background that is the back bone of the Smart Grid.

Spending so much of the money put aside for a smarter grid on snitch meters is just plain dumb!

[JP-1]

These companies, and therefore the government, will know exactly what everyone has plugged in at all times at their homes. The "smart grid" will transmit everything about your life at all times. The digital grid will be a two way communications network, bet on it. Internet is already available over power lines, and therefore information can already be transmitted over power lines now to who knows where.

Apple currently holds a patent for cameras that exist between the pixels of a display. Imagine this technology in your television where you're always being watched by some remote gestapo. Imagine the day everyone has electronic locks on their doors instead of old fashioned keyed locks. They already exist and are in every hardware store in America. Now, imagine the day they decide to lock you in your house and the only way out is to bust out your windows or walls.

Sounds crazy? Sure does. But 30 years ago who would have thought digital power meters would be installed on your house that could tell what you had plugged in and remotely manage your home devices?

It's coming. Mark my words. This so-called "smart grid" is bad news.

[streamline35]

"Sounds crazy?"

Yes. Some might even call it paranoid delusions.

The smart meters give YOU access to information that the power companies (and by your assumption, the government) already have. It always amazes me what paranoid ideas people can come up with about how the government could take over their lives, when, if it really was going happen, I think it would be about 10x easier to just get into everyone's computers.

I think you've done enough "imagining" for the day

[Dalkorian]

Dude, your tin foil hat is failing.

[hawkeyeaz1]

It's not for the government to use, it's for America's enemies (N Korea?) to hack into to get control...

[JP-1]

Yea yea. It's for "you" to use. We're doing it for "you". Get real. Everything you look at is about prying money from your hands and controlling you. But yea, they do it for "you". You can't see the forest for the trees.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents".
- H.P.Lovecraft

[Mattman704]

basraw is right - This is another expansion of government into our lives. As long as I pay my bill every month, I'll leave ALL my lights on and my 52" OLED TV on all the time if I darn well feel like it.

[filipiak]

Unless your utility is run by your government, what makes you think the "government" is involved in monitoring your electric use?

[solitare_pax]

Agreed - the electric utilities are for-profit companies that are regulated by the Government. Therefore, they are more interested in buying up Congressmen to vote down the next "Clean Air" or "Energy Efficiency" bill than they are about what you're doing in your house.

[Random_Walk]

Depends - if you live in, say California, I can see the companies there getting all crazy with forcing your usage low...

Why? Because it saves them from embarrassing brown/blackouts, and they can avoid the hassle of building new power plants, and the expense of buying out-of-state electricity on the spot market. Gov't regulation prevents them from using the free market to keep usage low (that is, they can't jack up your rates), so alternate means would likely be welcomed.

[ittesi259]

Random_Walk get your info right. Yes, CA imports a lot of electricity.....I blame the freakin environmentalists that say don't build powerplants use renewable....and then screw with every renewable project we have going. Also, these meters will allow utilities to better go after customers who don't pay their bill, and also lock up, chain dogs to and otherwise make the meter inaccessible to disconnect, since it can be done remotely. Oh, and lets not forget its the CPUC that wanted this all to happen, the utilities are following regulator requirements.

[streamline35]

I have one word for everyone complaining about energy regulation: Enron

[ikramerica--2008]

Enron was not an energy producer, but an energy trader. What does that have to do with the government making my house 80 degrees in the summer for my own good?

[Cosmo8U]

Rates do not fluctuate by time of day, they fluctuate by time of year. Also, this should eliminate a few Meter-Reader jobs but I don't expect my Power of Idaho bill to go down as these greedy pigs on average request, and receive 4 to 5 rate increases a year.

[ittesi259]

Rates may not fluctuate for you by time of day, but for businesses they do, and they probably will for residential customers in the near future.

[solitare_pax]

To a certain degree, this sounds good - you can determine your home's power usage more accurately by checking which devices are on at certain times, and seeing if replacing them would be worth it.

We were surprised at how much power an 'energy star' dryer from Sears was sucking up when we put a pully clothes line out in the back yard and stopped using it. Enough so that we probably won't use it unless we really have to.

[ittesi259]

Slap energy star on it all you want.....ANY appliance that uses electricity to generate heat sucks gobbs of energy.

[ikramerica--2008]

Gas dryers are SO much more efficient, as are gas water heaters. In the summer, here in CA, I was using about $10 of gas per month to heat my water and dry my clothes. Even in the winter, when it's peak gas rates, it's not more than $30 a month, or $1 a day. Electricity is far more expensive for that use.

[i-arman]

As I've said before, we don't NEED "smart" meters. We need the "smart" way before it ever gets to a house. Smart transformers, smart line regulators, and especially smart power plants. If we used nuclear power plants instead of wind/sun/squirrel-in-cage generators, "peak usage" wouldn't matter. A nuke plant can ramp up power produced from 10% to 90% is a matter of seconds. Solar power can ramp up from 10% to 90% in, oops, wait, there's a cloud, never mind. Wind power can ramp up in, oh, hey, the breeze died down, skip that too.

Imagine if grocery stores worked like that. "We use little trucks, so instead of getting bigger trucks to fill the demand, we'll just tell you to shop at midnight, because fewer people shop then, and the shelves will be full." What would happen? Their business would dry up. So why do we let the government waste money on stupid ideas like this, when they could use the same money and invest in a nuclear power plant? Or five?

[ittesi259]

Having a father who has worked at a nuclear plant for 27 years.....they certainly do NOT ramp up from 10 to 90 percent in a matter of seconds.....regulations require a much slower ramping up then that. If a Nuke plant is at 10 percent output its a signal of serious problems or emergency maintenance and that would take a few days to ramp up while testing said maintenance.

[filipiak]

Smart meters will allow for variable pricing of power to homes. This will make some people think twice about how they use their power, and will perhaps make some people adapt their use to benefit from lower power prices at off-peak times. It's difficulty to incrementally increase or decrease power generation, so, often, more power is being generated than is able to be used - resulting in higher electricity costs overall. (The exception of course are the peak usage times during hot summer days, when demand can outstrip supply.)

[Been_there_Saw_it_before]

Yo dude, a nuke takes days to change its output. You are probably thinking of a hydro or steam plant. They can change fast, but even they take multiple minutes to go from 10% to 90% of rated output. Did you every try to change the flow rate of a thousand tones of water in a pipe without breaking something? Did you every try to change a boiler from 15MW to 250MW in a few seconds? Think about feedwater rates and differential thermal expansion problems. A long time ago I was an engineer at Southern California Edison, and this was exactly the items I delt with.

[jacomo]

What we need is not Smart Meters but smart appliances or programmable device we can deploy now that will allow the home Owner to manage their appliances that actually use of the electricity. Ideally we'd have remote access (Laptops/PDA/Smartphone etc) as well as in-home access to these devices which can be programmed to control the appliances and send out alerts and updates.
No real need to replace the 150Million Plus meters in place, when one can deploy an ICM (Internet Communications Module programmable device) on these old meters that tracks usage and reports back to the Utility using existing Broadband and even Narrowband links. In addition,we do not need to wait for Smart Appliances which wil take years to deploy and cost the consumer $$$, when we can use these same ICM to interface and manage the Thermostats, Solar systems, HVAC, Water Heaters, Refrig., Car Chargers, Lighting Modules and even Video Surveillance systems.
The Fed is focusing on the wrong thing. Smart meters only help the Utility with information. They cannot (at least with todays technology/software) manage/control the home devices that consume the electricity.
We can move now if the Fed would provide local Service providers and their Utilities with financial incentives to work with both existing home owners and new Greenfield projects to deploy and support these new ICM devices.

Jim A.

[mainchain]

Relax, "smart" meters can't see that your OLED is plugged for 24x7, UNLESS it's connected to your network/Internet, and you allow communication to it from the outside. Your toaster has no communication capabilities at all. As far as most devices are concerned, the "smart" meter will only see the power draw.

Turning on specific devices at a certain time, that's been available for years. It's called Home Automation. Go to some expensive custom homes, it's all over the place.

If a "smart" meter can send ACTUAL usage to the power companies, I know that could reduce bills. I know at my office, Edison just charges you for your peak usage for the month and assumes you use that much everyday. Oh, and we're right next door to them. Our bills have been pretty high. in the summer.

[sarmadmn]

wireless enabled meters have been in the market for some time now, the frequency of sending the meter reading on line is just a configuration and cost issue, calling it "Smart" meters is just a branding schema

[sgornick]

Current summary of San Diego Gas & Electric's SmartMeter program.

SDG&E has rolled out about 60K electric and 50K gas smartmeters and will have double that in the next couple of months.
http://www.sdge.com/smartmeter/

The meter equipment used is Itron OpenWay

The electric meters periodically send to SDG&E the readings for every hour of the day. The gas meters send a daily meter reading. The cost of the meters has been rolled into the equipment charge part of the consumer's bills. SDG&E has the ability to disconnect and reconnect service remotely.

Google produces their PowerMeter application to provide near-real-time feedback to consumers about their electricity usage patterns. Initially, only SDG&E customers who get a PowerMeter gadget that talks to the smartmeter are served, but eventually the data will come from SDG&E itself and at that time PowerMeter will be available to all of SDG&E's customers.

[pedrolawrench]

Local government is already talking about fining you for using too many kWH in a month. This can happen with or without smart meters.

[taphilo]

They tout it is good for consumer / nation, but for the consumer to benefit at all they need: PC / MAC, Internet connection, forgo printed bills and online only, understand "Electricspeak" - the lingo that utilities use and how to actually read and comprend the detailed minute by minute bill, exactly what was being used on each day to figure out why the bill is high.
Plus now that they have the capability to charge per time of day for electric use - they WILL as being mandated by the Government to "save power" and conserve. Thus, rate will HAVE to go up if less power is used!
Power will thus revert to the old style PHONE system where rates are going to be set by time of day, time of year, PLUS the variable of power available at that point in time so that one day the rate may be 53 cents a KWH and the next day 85 cents due to high heat and a failure of a power plant (remember, build no more plants to save the environement and conserve our way out of future needs) and you will have NO CHOICE at all in what is being charged since it is all "regulated and approved" by the utility commission of the state as dictated by the Federal Government via bribes to the states to employ the rules they want or forego federal dollars - just like what they do with roads / highway safety rules now and for many other items. Adopt the rules or get 20% less to absolutely NO money if you do not pass a law to do what the Federal Government "suggests"! Its been going on like that for 40+ years now (why do you think there are 50 state laws mandating seat belts be worn - if not enacted a state would get 20% less federal highway funds to maintain the roads!)
Tom Philo
http://www.taphilo.com

[tekwiz4u]

No excuse to not pay your bill now. You dont, and a push of a button can shut down power. lol

[mahurshi]

>>A person could, for example, schedule a dishwasher to run or charge a plug-in vehicle in the middle of the night.

Then you could actually use the line "Sorry, honey. We're out of clean dishes tonight. Let's go out to eat" :-)

[RogerRoster]

Smart meters will probably benefit customers in a big way and give them control over their energy use. This is good especially since energy costs are spiraling, it will also help consumers to take decisions to conserve energy. I think more consumers need to read about energy related technology and be aware of the various aspects at work. I found this website of Pacific Crest Transformers especially useful in educating me, perhaps you can check it out too.