Smart Meters
A article in The Economist [subscription required] from December 2006 (sorry, it is dated but still interesting) describes how the Italian utility Enel is leading the way in the adoption of smart electricity meters.
Here are some highlights of what smart meters can do:
- Instant readings transmitted back to the power company allow power prices to be varied hour by hour. This gives customers an incentive to reduce consumption during peak hours. The FERC calculates that peak demand can be reduced by as much as 7% in this way, saving $15 billion a year.
- The smartest (genius?) meters can also control electric appliances like air conditioners and turn them off during peak demand times.
Enel believes, however, that demand reduction is just one of the benefits of smart meters. The other big benefit is improved customer service:
- 98% of customer complaints and requests are now handled within 24 hours
- Outages are detected and repaired more quickly
- Customers who fail to pay their bills can have their power shut off or their consumption automatically limited, shielding the company from losses
Most of this can be done remotely, resulting in an estimated 6 million fewer visits by field personnel.
