Almost one third of U.S. households now have smart meters

Almost one third of U.S. households now have smart meters

As of May 2012, almost one-in-three U.S. households now have a smart meter, up from about one-in-four households in September 2011, according to a new report from the Institute for Electric Efficiency (IEE).

By mid-decade, more than half the households in the country will have a smart meter, the IEE projects.

The report Utility Scale Smart Meter Deployments, Plans, & Proposals, finds that as of May 2012, 36 million smart meters had been installed in the U.S. This number is expected to increase to 65 million smart meters by 2015, amounting to an installation rate of approximately 675,000 smart meters per month.

Lisa Wood, executive director of the IEE commented:

“Our results show that electric utilities are committed to upgrading their customers’ meters as part of the industry’s overall goal to modernize the nation’s electric grid.”

Notably by the end of 2012, 22 utilities in 16 states will have smart meters fully deployed to their entire customer base, representing 29 million customers.

The study is based on submitted and approved AMI business plans, responses to survey questions and other public information.

The report also says that utilities are using the smart meter data to help customers conserve electricity, set spending and usage goals, and receive notifications when usage is high.

Benefits include customer access to energy usage information, customized tips on energy management, enhanced outage restoration, and others.

Among the initiatives is the Green Button, which is a voluntary industry effort to create a standard format for energy consumption data gathered by both smart meters and AMR meters. As of May 2012, almost 10 million customers have access to their energy consumption data in the Green Button format, while 21 utilities and electricity suppliers in almost half the states in the country have committed to bringing the Green Button to 30 million customers.

Source: metering.com

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