On Sun, 27 May 2012 00:37:26 -0500, "NotMe" wrote:




snip

Not if every home does the same thing. It can ammount to several large
power stations not needing to be built.
The REAL unspoken reason for smart meters is that they save manpower
costs (meter-reading costs) for electric utilities.

At the cost of significant investment in technology - so no, I have
to disagree that it is "the REAL" reason. Remote reading could be
added to a standard meter, or "customer read" with quarterly or
by-annual "agent read" to verify honesty can also be used - and have
been in several areas.

Cost of smart meters in this area are an add on, monthly, line item fee to
the customer bill.

No real savings because the other meters (gas and water) are still read
manually.

I also expect the fee to remain long after the cost of the meter is
recoverd.

Don't know about where you are, but here in Waterloo the 3 meters were
read by 3 meter readers before the smart hydro and remote water meters
were installed. Waterloo North Hydro, Union Gas, and City of Waterloo
for Water.

I believe Kitchener had only one or 2 - as water and gas were both
Kitchener Utilities, while electric was Kitchener Wilmot Hydro