Home Guy wrote:

Such knowledge, however, doesn't come cheap. Meters are expensive,
often costing $250 to $500 each when all the bells and whistles are
included, such as the expense of installing new utility billing
systems. And utilities typically pass these costs directly on to
consumers. CenterPoint Energy Inc. in Houston, for instance, recently
began charging its customers an extra $3.24 a month for smart meters,
sparking howls of protest since the charges will continue for a
decade and eventually approach $1 billion.


It's worse than that. I just checked. The add-ons - smart meter, taxes,
physical plant upgrade, escrow for New Year's Party, and so forth - vary
between $20.66 and $31.56 for the past few months. Say an average of
$25/month going to CenterPoint for miscellaneous items.

That's why I'm gonna disconnect the service to one-half of my duplex and
convert its circuit breaker box to a sub-panel! I've got all the stuff (zip
cord and the like); I'm just waiting for it to quit raining.

I did the same thing for the natural gas connection about a year ago and
saved $17/month.

I mean, heck, $25/month is 300 bucks a year! As Patrick Monyihan said: "...
pretty soon we're talking about real money."