I know they store power usage trends and can see how that might help the power generators. I logged in to my account and saw that when I ran the AC, the power usage went up. What a revelation! LOL! Other than that, what use are these things?
Getting people comfortable with having every possible aspect of their lives monitored and scrutinized. For your security and convenience, of course.
Jon
The secret police want to know what hours of the day you are home so they can do a sneak and peek to find out if you have any seditious tendencies. They will go through all your papers, copy the hard drive in any computers you have, bug your home and surveil your land line and cellphone. If you are suspected of sedition, a heavily armed SWAT team will kick in your door then drag you and your family away for interrogation. ^_^
TDD
You forgot, "and drink all your beer."
No meter readers.
smart meters reportpower failures, if only your meter reports a power failure your home will be marked as a power thief, and inspected
if way too much power is being used your home will be checked for growing illegail drugs.
FUNNY, a few years ago I stumbled onto a hydropinic garden with grow light.
I gave it to my best friend and just requested some tomatoes grown in mid winter.
my buddy put the garden in his basement, neighbors asked if he was growing pot:)
incidently we did some taste testing of the tomatoes, no flavor or other difference between store tomatoes or hydropoinic:(
Good. If only my meter reports a power failure, then it means the line from the pole to my house is down, and I want someone to come out and fix it.
I'd better disconnect the hot tub, then. The power company already knows we use way more electricity than our neighbors.
Cindy Hamilton
They are designed to do what they are used for here in Ontario, Canada. Raise the cost of electricity when you want to use it. My wife now does her laundry after midnight so she can dry the clothes at the low rate. Otherwise our outrageous electric cost would be even higher.
Did you know that during Earth Hour, when everyone is encouraged to turn off the lights for one hour, the electric companies pay industry to use up the power. This is because you cannot shut down a nuclear plant for one hour, nor stop a hydro dam or even shut down a coal powered generator plant. Instead of saving money it costs us all extra to not use the lights for one hour.
Time of day billing, something they tried years ago but the technology really wasn't ready yet. For the past year or two I've seen offers from the utility here for "free" power from something like 8pm to 6am, i.e. when commercial loads are lower and there is a surplus of generating capacity. Not a bad deal if you can shift your usage patterns.
And no misreads. Pre smart meters I had a fair number of incidents where I had to call in a corrected reading when the meter reader messed up one of the upper digits.
I didn't think of that because I've never drunk a beer or even a glass of wine in my life. I suppose that makes me a heretic who must turn in his man card. ^_^
TDD
Given that the US Supreme Court already ruled that infrared surveys required a warrant, one would expect that the warrant requirement would also apply to utility records.
No reason they can't (except some money). The city I used to live in was converting over to a "smart grid" that was part of their cable/Internet system. It would have eliminated meter readers completely (they had been doing it with the truck up and down the street, as you suggest, for years).
I bet you'll find that you're wrong on that one. The fed doesn't have to have a warrant to get your phone records. They have them all.
This is not true. Power plants can throttle down the output, directly, and bring offline necessary units in running standby, or stopped standby, mode.
Look up "droop mode vs isochronous" via search engine.
Depending on what is going on, and how the plant is operated, switching all units (maybe minus one) into droop will have the power plant reacting to load conditions. Many power plants have automatic controls for such circumstances. Others might have operators that will make the decision. Shutting the plant down is not necessary.
What does that have to do with misreads? The old visual readings were fraught with errors, an electronic reading is normally error free.
It seems at least one court disagrees with that per the latest news. Who knows where it will end up as it works it's way up through the courts.
WTF are you talking about, kook?
Perhaps in theory, but Ontario Hydro the electric generator for Ontario, Canada, was scrambling to cover the drop in consumption during the last earth day according to reports.
Don't say such things. The damned fool is too stupid to understand sarcasm.
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