Posted on September 1, 2010 at 8:30 am
Yesterday Energy Secretary Chu said over 2 million smart meters have been installed. This is technically true. Yet we wonder why he said only 2 million. We know of the following installations that total over 16 million smart meters, and State public utility commissions have approved another 34 million in the U.S.
[Update: I received a number of private responses to my posting regarding the discrepancy in numbers. Reliable sources have informed me that the 2 million figure is meters installed using Recovery Act funds, thus resolving the mystery. I estimate that 1.1 million of these are at CenterPoint, FPL, and AEP, with the remainder scattered among the roughly 40 ARRA projects that included smart meters.]
Installed
- AEP OH: 0.2 million
- AEP TX: 0.1 m
- Alliant: 0.5 m
- CenterPoint: 0.5 m
- Delmarva: 0.2 m
- Exelon: 0.2 m
- FPL: 0.6 m
- Idaho Power: 0.1 m
- Oncor: 1.3 m
- PG&E: 6.5 m
- PGE: 0.8 m
- PPL: 1.4 m
- SCE: 1.4 m
- SDG&E: 1.2 m
- Southern Company: 1.0 m
Already Approved
- TOTAL: 34.2 million additional
The point? When you combine the approved and the existing smart meter installations, you get 50.7 million, of which 38 million are electric. The 38 million account for fully one-quarter of the 150 million electric meters in the U.S.
Thus, smart meters have jumped the “Adoption Gap” in the well-known Rogers Technology Adoption Curve (see figure). That means we’re into the “Early majority.”
Now that’s good news – on both ARRA-funded meters and overall!
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Last month, the Texas PUC issued its final report on smart meter accuracy testing. This Thursday, California’s PUC will issue its own report. The question: are the millions of electric smart meters being installed in those two states truly accurate?
Yes.
We’ll see what California says, but the conclusions in the Texas report were clear. These are the questions that Navigant Consulting, the report’s author, was tasked with:
- Is electricity usage accurately measured and recorded by the advanced meters?
- Is the recorded electricity usage accurately communicated from the advanced meters through the respective utility’s advanced metering systems for use in customer billing?
- Is recorded electricity usage higher on average for customers with advanced meters in comparison to customers with older electromechanical meters?
- Are there other potential factors or causes contributing to the observed higher incidence of meter and billing related customer complaints?
Navigant tested 5,627 meters in their investigation. Of these, 2 were inaccurate according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard; i.e. 99.96% of the meters were accurate to within 2.0% of actual. 5,622 meters (99.91%) were accurate to within 0.5% of actual.
Which means? For a typical monthly bill of $150, all but 5 meters were within $0.75 of the actual amount.
By way of comparison, as I reported earlier this year, only 98.4% of existing, non-smart meters are within the ANSI standard. So while 2 meters in the Texas smart meter test were found outside the limits, the same test on existing, non-smart meters would have turned up 90 inaccurate meters – exactly 45 times as many bad meters.
The official conclusion: It is Navigant Consulting’s opinion… that the vast majority of advanced meters currently installed by Oncor, CenterPoint and AEP Texas are accurately measuring and recording electric usage, as well as communicating that information through the respective advanced metering systems for use in customer billing.
It’ll be interesting to see this Friday’s headlines on the California tests.
Posted on August 26, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Maine lighthouse
The California Measurement Advisory Council just released its summary report on the energy efficiency programs of Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric for 2006-2008.
During that period, California’s $2.1 billion ratepayer investment in efficiency saved a total of six billion kWh per year. That’s more electricity than is used by the entire state of Maine, lighthouses and all!
More about these savings… Read More »
Posted on August 25, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Naperville, Illinois is a nice place — in fact, in three of the past six years Money Magazine ranked it among the top five best American places to live. So it’s not surprising that Naperville is taking a leading role in the smart grid by moving forward with an aggressive smart grid initiative.
This program, which is partly funded by a US Department of Energy Smart Grid Investment Grant, includes its own Smart Grid Customer Bill of Rights.
Here’s what their bill of rights covers…
Read More »
Posted on August 23, 2010 at 8:50 am
Last month the Oklahoma Corporation Commission approved Oklahoma Gas & Electric’s Positive Energy smart grid program.
After closely evaluating the utility’s application, the OCC found this smart grid technology to be a prudent investment — preapproving up to $366.4 million in program costs to construct the system.
Here’s some information about where that money is coming from, and how it will be handled…
Read More »
Posted on August 20, 2010 at 8:03 am
Chopra is in charge of crafting the Obama Administration's smart grid vision
This week I met Aneesh Chopra, the first Chief Technology Officer of the US. My first question was: What does America’s CTO do?
Not surprisingly, his job description is quite lengthy — and it includes several duties critical to smart meters and the smart grid. In fact, Chopra is responsible for crafting President Obama’s vision of the smart grid. He’s also responsible for promoting efforts nationwide to get the smart grid built, and to deliver benefits to consumers.
Chopra believes strongly that energy information will empower consumers to understand, manage, and reduce their electricity and gas consumption…
Read More »
Posted on August 18, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Not everyone pays their electric bill in full and on time — but smart meters give electricity retailers more options for working with residential customers who get behind on their bills.
The UK’s nationwide smart meter rollout is accelerating. Some UK electricity retailers have already begun installing smart meters. On Aug. 16 the UK energy regulator, Ofgem, released interim guidance advising those retailers about practices for remotely disconnecting customers or switching those customers to prepayment. (In California a similar proceeding also is underway.)
Ofgem’s guidance aims to provide customers with at least the current level of protection and safety during the smart meter transition, in the event that remote disconnection or a switch to prepayment becomes necessary… Read More »
Posted on August 17, 2010 at 12:40 pm
In July, Sweden became the first European nation to achieve 100% smart meter rollout — putting that country at the forefront of demand response potential. This regulation-driven rollout now requires monthly meter readings.
Meanwhile, Sweden also is making progress toward its ambitious goal of installing 30 terawatt hours (TWh) of wind energy capacity by 2020… Read More »
Posted on August 11, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Spain is taking a key step toward realizing its ambitious electric vehicle goals by making power cheaper at night, when vehicles would be charging. Recently Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Trade submitted to the National Commission of Energy a draft Royal Decree for a cheap night off-peak tariff. This rate would apply from midnight to 6 a.m. in winter, and 1-7 a.m. in summer.
If passed (which could happen after this summer), this tariff would be available to licensed businesses with demand up to 15 KV, and with parking facilities that could host vehicle charging stations…
Read More »
Posted on August 10, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Reporters and regulators often ask me, “How will consumers benefit from smart meters?” Fortunately, the US consumer value proposition for smart meters has been clearly developed by utilities and regulators over the past decade.
Smart meters offer four main types of savings. Three of these primarily benefit consumers… Read More »
