SMART METERS
Smart meters are spying devices. ... Smart meters utilize wireless technology and instantly tell power companies how much electricity a home is using, and even can report on the power usage by individual appliances, as Smart Grid News said.
Smart meters can reveal when your house is unoccupied, as it is when you are on holiday.
They are the mini-computers being installed in 30m UK homes and businesses in an £11bn programme that will allow the energy companies to remotely monitor our gas and electricity usage. But could smart meters also become the new spies in our homes, raising fresh fears about a surveillance society as they track our daily activities?
A smart meter is an electronic device that records consumption of electric energy and communicates the information to the electricity supplier for monitoring and billing. Smart meters typically record energy hourly or more frequently, and report at least daily.
Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system. Such an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) differs from automatic meter reading (AMR) in that it enables two-way communication between the meter and the supplier.
Communications from the meter to the network may be wireless, or via fixed wired connections such as power line carrier (PLC). Wireless communication options in common use include cellular communications (which can be expensive), Wi-Fi (readily available), wireless ad hoc networks over Wi-Fi, wireless mesh networks, low power long range wireless (LODA), ZigBee(low power, low data rate wireless), and Wi-SUN (Smart Utility Networks).
The term Smart Meter often refers to an electricity meter, but it also may mean a device measuring natural gas or water consumption.
Similar meters, usually referred to as interval or time-of-use meters, have existed for years, but "Smart Meters" usually involve real-time or near real-time sensors, power outage notification, and power quality monitoring. These additional features are more than simple automated meter reading (AMR). They are similar in many respects to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters. Interval and time-of-use meters historically have been installed to measure commercial and industrial customers, but may not have an automatic reading.
Research by the UK consumer group (Which?) showed that as many as one in three confuse smart meters with energy monitors, also known as in-home display monitors. The roll-out of smart meters is claimed to be one strategy for saving energy. While energy suppliers in the UK could save around £300 million a year from their introduction, benefits to users of electricity depend on their using the information to change their pattern of energy use. For example, smart meters may facilitate taking advantage of lower off-peak time tariffs, and selling electricity back to the grid with net metering.
The installed base of smart meters in Europe at the end of 2008 was about 39 million units, according to analyst firm Berg Insight. Globally, Pike Research found that smart meter shipments were 17.4 million units for the first quarter of 2011.[10]Visiongain determined that the value of the global smart meter market would reach US$7 billion in 2012.
Smart meters may be part of a smart grid, but do not themselves constitute a smart grid.
....... Wikipedia
