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Originally Posted by t vago
Customers would see an extra $5/month or so charge on their electric bill.
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Average electric bill in the US is around $100 per month so a $5 increase to pay for a new meter is only a 5% increase and it's much cheaper then paying for a new power plant to be built.
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In Italy, where I lived for 3.5 years, they do have 100% smart meters. However, they also have really expensive electric rates. The smart meters there can do all sorts of wondrous things, like change the billing plan per customer, and auto-shut off from the central station. I'd just love it if, God forbid, there were a glitch in my paying the monthly bill, and the electric company decided to just shut off my power while the glitch was being worked out.
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So while you were in Italy you had them shut your power off a lot by mistake? The US is controlled so much by lawsuits that you are still going to be more likely to have your power go out because the grid is over loaded then because of a computer glitch, that is if the smart meters could turn the power off, a feature that would be a huge added cost to each meter and a feature that at least in the US is not built in to the meters, you still have to send someone out to your house and pull the plug, something that the power company is going to notice happen, my parents have solar and wind power and use the grid as back up only, when they first got a smart meter they were using more electricity then they were producing so they were hooked up to the grid using a small amount of grid power, then they disconnected and the power company noticed, so they sent someone out and swapped out the meter thinking it was a dud and a while later they noticed that their house was again not using any electricity for a few days so they sent someone out again to make sure that nothing was wrong because it's really hard to stop using electricity all together for days at a time, so while it's odd for them to be able to keep an eye on your usage and notice that something is not right, it also warns them when something has gone wrong before you even call to say that something has gone wrong.
When we are better informed we an make better choices and I don't understand the argument for being less informed!