Now, however, they seem to be settled into widespread use without many reported incidents. In the beginning, some incidents occurred with smart power meters. That saw millions of smart power electricity meters installed all over the country as a result of these grants.
The real jump came with the Smart Grid Investment Grant program under the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009. Most of this has been driven by state policies and a desire to modernize the U.S. Of those, around 83.4 million were residential (~88%). EIA website and found that, as of 2019, the United States has over 94.8 million smart meter installations. How Many Smart Meters are There in the United States? Requires additional security due to managing a more complex electrical grid.Increased hardware costs due to advanced electronics.Requires additional equipment, training, and resources to handle advanced data storage, interpretation, and management.Allows the collection of personal electronic usage data which is ultimately tied to your person.Higher new meter installation costs and fees.Better usage of electric resources results in more efficient use of existing electrical plants.Allows utility company to monitor the entire electrical system in real-time.
Smart utility meter vendors manual#
Lowers utility company costs through eliminating manual meter readings.Similarly to the above, the utility company can also perform load-balancing during critical times to maintain power for the widest possible coverage.Increases prioritization and resource organization of utility companies during outages and storms for faster response times and restoration of power to customers.Easier meter reading for consumers to better monitor usage habits.More available information regarding energy use.That also raises the importance of utility companies managing electricity usage throughout the day and into the night. The advent of EV cars brings with it the near certainty of increased nighttime electrical usage. Want to crank up those tools during the middle of the day? Your 15-amp table saw might cost you less if you run it at night (though the neighbors may want to engage you on that one!) Imagine, for example, paying more for your electricity in the summertime if you live down south-or more for electricity in the winter if you live up north. Or, they can vary rates during different times of the year. They give power companies and other regulatory agencies the ability to consider charging more money at certain times of the day. Smart Electricity Meters Report Back to Power Companies They don’t tell you when that energy was consumed. Legacy meters only tell you the amount of consumption in a given period of time. This represents the potential “dark side” of using a smart grid. Like we used to see with cell phones, the utility company can now charge more for prime-time electricity use.įor some time now, government regulators have sought better ways to match consumption with generation. Chiefly, that involves the use of smart power meters to monitor energy use as a means to segregate power consumption into periods of time. There’s a potential negative side to smart power meters for consumers. Now, you might think the savings of all that labor would translate into instant reductions in energy costs, right? Smart grids are most certainly the future and integral to the survival of an admittedly outdated American electrical grid. Generally, we consider this a good thing. That means the utility (electric company) can purchase and allocate electricity more efficiently. One advantage for smart meters in and of themselves is that they can more easily integrate into a smart grid. While that’s likely good news for the electric company, it presents some not-so-good news for those legacy meter readers. It also puts a lot of those meter readers out of work. Networked meters save the company a trip to your home and keep employees off your property (and away from dogs, horses, and other animals that might present an issue for the meter reader). The digital readout is much easier for both consumers and Pros to read. In a nutshell, this means the utility company can read your meter remotely.Ĭompare that to old meters with their manual dials broken up into 5 clock-like faces that you had to manually read to get the current total kilowatt hours. Smart power meters allow and facilitate two-way (networked) communication between the meter and the central electrical system. Your electric company or utility provider likely already installed a smart electricity meter in your home or office. Final Thoughts on Smart Electricity Meters.Are Smart Electricity Meters Dangerous?.How Many Smart Meters are There in the United States?.Smart Electricity Meters Report Back to Power Companies.
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