smart meters

Smart meters are one key part of a wider set of technologies and techniques collectively known as the "smart grid" .

So far the pioneer is Italy, where the main utility, Enel, has deployed more than 30m smart meters to its customers since 2001.

And consumers in other states where smart meters have been installed have complained the devices haven't lived up to their billing.

Yet communicating with customers should be one of the first things for firms to do when introducing smart meters, says Mr Giles.

"Over the next months, our model and code will face test data from real smart meters and the utilities' back-end systems, " says Herdt.

Ultimately, smart meters will allow the electricity used by domestic appliances to be "dynamically" managed.

It works with smart meters, which have two-way communications, and a home network to gather data on appliances and run reports.

A network of drone smart meters could cause a swath of the grid to power down, throwing off the grid's electrical load.

Smart meters could also be used to limit the amount of power available to each home at times of peak demand.

Tendril's products work with two-way smart meters and a home network to gather data on appliances and run reports.

"We did not just put in smart meters and ask consumers to pay for them, " he says.

Over the years, utilities have promised consumers savings of energy and cash from smart meters.

This investment, in conjunction with smart meters, will allow it to sell "carbon neutral" power to environmentally minded customers.

The European Union's energy tsars are keen on smart meters as a way to encourage energy efficiency for its own sake.

Meanwhile, millions of other consumers worldwide are getting smart meters connected by their electric utilities.

That number would double again if smart meters could turn appliances off automatically should rates rise above a certain point.

Greg Clark, Mr Miliband's shadow, described the plans to roll out the smart meters as "frustratingly slow" .

Using smart sensors, e. g. , smart meters, is essential to achieve environmental sustainability.

As early as 2004 the city's Water and Sewer Commission had equipped almost all its customers with wireless smart meters.

This may explain why the more consumers appreciate the centrality of data to the smart grid, the less they trust smart meters.

Equally important, standards for such things as smart meters need to be sorted out.

Smart meters will also play a key role in helping the government meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets of at least 34% by 2020.

Installing smart meters in 25% of American homes, GE estimates, would be equivalent to removing 1. 7m cars from the roads.

It is odd, then, that everybody loves mobile devices, which are not that different from smart meters or on-board units.

Even in technophile California people have started to resist smart meters.

Regulators tend to push for smart meters only under special circumstances.

Smart meters and other gear needed to make grids more intelligent will not come cheap.

Landis Gyr, which also sells smart meters, networking systems and service products, boasts more than 8, 000 utility customers globally.

Smart meters being installed by utility companies are one example.

The challenges of modernizing smart meters and smart grids.

Smart meters also help to curtail the theft of electricity.

PG&E is in the process of installing millions of smart meters.

For example, it took that flurry of protests to prompt PG&E to open a dedicated call centre for questions about smart meters.

A new government plan will see smart meters introduced into all UK homes between 2012 and 2020.

For example, domestic consumption could be cut by the large-scale employment of smart meters in houses and flats.

"Smart" meters tell people how much power their appliances are consuming;

By the end of last year more than 76m smart meters had been installed worldwide.

The first smart meters installed under the government's new plans are expected to arrive in 2012.

The hitch is that utilities in America have provided smart meters for only 6% of their customers, according to the FERC.

Our software relies on 'smart meters' (or other metering devices) as a data source.