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

• TOTAL: 16.5 million

Already Approved

• AEP TX: 0.9 million additional
• Alliant: 0.9 m
• BGE: 2.0 m
• Bluebonnet: 0.1 m
• Burbank Water & Power: 0.1
• CenterPoint: 1.9 m
• CPS Energy: 1.0 m
• Delmarva: 0.2 m
• Exelon: 2.0 m
• FPL: 3.9 m
• Idaho Power: 0.4 m
• PG&E: 3.6 m
• Oncor: 1.7 m
• Pepco: 0.8 m
• SCE: 3.6 m
• SCG: 6.0 m
• SDG&E: 1.1 m
• Silicon Valley Power: 0.1 m
• Southern Company: 3.6 m
• TNMP: 0.2
• Westar Energy: 0.1 m

• 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!