"Gordon Burditt" wrote in message
netamerica...
I thought one of the cases for smart meters was that they allowed
the utility to avoid having to build more generating capacity for
peak loads and replace it with "greenouts": shutting off heavy loads
in a house such as heating/air conditioning, water heaters, clothes
washers/ dryers, etc. without shutting off the whole house. It's
also one of the reasons for "smart appliances". This probably saves
the utility a lot of money. It still amounts to Unreliable Service(tm)
but they get to call it something else.

No, smart METERS cannot do that.

TXU (in Texas) claims that a smart thermostat they sell communicates
with the smart meter and allows you (via their web page) or them
to shut off your A/C for what they claim will be 15 to 45 minutes
during peak load periods. It's been available for at least a year.
I don't have one so I haven't seen it work, or know how often the
turnoff is used. But customers can (have to?) use the web page to
program the thermostat, so the remote setting ability has to work
even if it's not used against the wishes of the customer (yet).

In our part of Texas the service also has a monthly fee unrelated to the
cost of providing the service.