Dave Liquorice used his keyboard to write :
No but they don't need to have access to your network or you to have
access to the meter. The "meter" just needs to squirt the consumption
data out at regular intervals. As USB is limited to 5 m unless you
start using active cables, the data ought come out of the remote
display box which is far more likely to be within USB range of a PC.
The only communication between the box and PC would be the low level
stuff to establish the USB link. The PC then just listens to the
incoming data stream (XML formated say). In the box any data sent by
the PC isn't connected to anything so is "harmless".

This is how my "Current Cost" useage monitor works (except it sends a
TTL serial data stream but they do a TTL to USB convertor). It sends
live data every few seconds, then every minute or five historical
data, broken into a number of periods. Last 24 hours, last week, last
month I think, I only log the live data and do my own processing.

Are you saying this is something you have actually managed to do, or
are proposing a way to do it?

Have you actually managed to tap into the remote display unit of an
ordinary smart meter?