Smart Grid and smart meters hold the promise of long term consumption management and reduction but how reliable is the new technology? Recently consumers in California have contended that the new meters do not capture consumption at the same rate as traditional meters and have resulted in increased power costs. Are the new meters more accurate than the old meters or are there calibration issues in the new meter technology? The link below is to a recent New York Times article describing what some states and commissions are dealing with.
If additional oversight will be needed to ensure meter benchmarking and calibration testing above what utilities have done historically is required, what is the incremental cost of deployment and long term support going to be?
