On Aug 29, 10:36*am, dpb wrote:
wrote:

... I have yet to hear any logical explanation of exactly how "smart
electric meters" are going to do much of anything to save energy or
enable more green energy. * Every single newspaper article discussing
the subject is pure bable and hyperbole. * They make claims like "It
will enable power from a windmill three states away to be delivered to
your home. * *It will allow the solar panels on your neighbors house
to power your home...."

Both of those things are done today with the conventional grid.

...
Starting last first...

Those things specifically _aren't_ actually done; at best the windmill
somewhere in the Midwest can displace a few electrons that otherwise
would have flowed to you but there's no way the actual generation
specifically from that location arrive in your outlets...(and, yes, I
know you know that, just amplifying some).

And, of course, "smart meters" aren't going to change that, either.

What they can do is cut peak loading by demand-based load limiting and
similar techniques.

And how exactly is a smart meter going to limit demand? This is
exactly the type of statement that I'm talking about. A supposed
benefit that makes no sense. Unless the house is rewired/modified so
the smart meter can shed specific loads, like turn off the AC or water
heater, then any meter that replaces the current one isn't going to
shed any load, unless it turns off the current to the entire
house.






More interesting is farther up the food chain than individual residence
metering to the distribution grid itself where better control could make
significant improvements in grid loss by solid state transformers,
better thermal sensing and control of line sag, etc. *Discussion and
deployment of DC transmission for long-distance is another area that is
on the horizon as losses are significantly lower and as noted above
solid-state devices now do allow for high-voltage step-up/down that
before required conventional transformers.

There are benefits; as noted, unfortunately, the common press reporter
is so ill-informed and scientifically ignorant there's almost no hope of
any general circulation story having any factual basis behind it that
makes any sense...

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