So I could set up batteries that charged at night (when electricity is presumably cheaper) and use them to power stuff during the day?

If your storage efficiency is higher than the difference in price, yeah, you could.

Greenwashing alert: Oncor is wasting ratepayer money to fatten their own wallets.

The money would be MUCH better spent on a good efficiency program that had incentives for CFLs, energy star appliances, home energy audits, and especially efficient air conditioners (this is Texas, after all).

Even with advanced meters, only a small number of customers will react to high prices, a scheme that punishes those who have a hard time conserving on the hottest days. This means that Oncor gets to spend $700m, get an 8% - 12% return on the investment, and suffer very little savings that might hurt their sales.

This may avoid building a power plant, but only one. A good efficiency program would let you avoid that one, and retire one or two others (hopefully coal plants).

Many large buildings use chilled water for air conditioning, and typically run the chiller at night since the surrounding air temperature is lower than during the day.

The plus is if you have a solar setup, you get the higher day rate, and when the sun isn't shining at night pay the lower rate.

Sounds like a chilled water A/C + solar panels would be a good way to go, and will decrease the time for break even on the solar panel setup.

real-time pricing is extremely powerful. Reducing peak demand by even a few percent if worth a lot bigger reduction in off-peak demand. Don't be fooled by small percentages..

I appreciate your comment MY-T and I think you're right. Doesn't it often seem that the much easier solution is also the better one?

" The money would be MUCH better spent on a good efficiency program that had incentives for CFLs, energy star appliances, home energy audits, and especially efficient air conditioners (this is Texas, after all). "

I disagree. Enough with the rebates and incentives. It is personal responsibility and things are not THAT expensive. We have energy saver appliances, house is properly insulated, etc. Our heating cost is less than half of the average house in Maine (300+ gallons vs 800-1000 gallons of heating oil averaged) The only thing I can't get a break on is on the cost of electricity.

I want a smart meter so I can run the diswasher and dryer at night ... except I can't get one.

In Florida, a few years ago, inquiring about on & off-peak metering (the way I had it in Europe for over a decade already) I was told I would need a second meter ($$$) and electrical system ($$$) to get a lower rate.

Rolling out a smart grid is a lot better system that benefits all customers, rather than those who will buy a new appliance. Appliances are bought when one breaks or when a person redoes the kitchen. Not because of some incentive.

And btw. I am unscrewing the CFLs and going back to regular bulbs after one failing CFL nearly set my house on fire the other day, the base was boiling hot red and it was spewing toxic smoke like nothing I have seen before. Energy savings with CFLs are fine and dandy but it is not worth the risk of fire to me.

Smart Meters are not so smart. Try plugging a solar panel or wind turbine in your system and that meter will take what ever power you make and put it on the grid, and make it look like your are consuming electric and not producing it. Thus charging you for what you produced. It is pretty stupid that way, the 'old' meter simply spun backwards, giving you credit. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

With the 'smart meter', the utilities will require you to have two meters on your home, one for incoming and one for out going, in which they will charge you for reading two meters. Not so Smart, ay. Twice the cost every month.

If there is a problem between the interaction of certain smart meters and solar panels/wind turbines, that problem should be fixed.

But since there are a lot more people without solar/wind than people with it, smart meters are still quite a net benefit to energy efficiency.

Duke Energy is installing "smart meters" in Cincinnati but they didn't say anything about different peak/off-peak pricing.

Full article: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/05/26/daily19.html?surround=lfn

I doubt very much if training their customers to be more efficient is in the top 10 reasons why they want these meters.

The biggest benefit to them is that they can fire all the meter readers. Here in Dallas in the past few years, my meter reading got cut back to once every 3 month or so. This became a huge problem when I was working out of town for a while and shut off all the breakers when I was away. I got accused of using 1600KWH over 3 months instead of 600KWH because the meter only had 3 digits and they claimed I'd rolled the meter. The less electricity I used, the more they charged me!

It took me months of fighting to correct my bill. (They really hate it when you get the Public Utility Commission on their case.)

Sure, the meters will provide more accurate billing which will benefit the customer, but inaccurate billing is THEIR problem to fix. I've been told many times that I would have to have a smart meter installed for like $150 out of my pocket. I told them to quit threatening me and just read the one I have here correctly and on time. My job is to use their power. Their job is to properly meter my use and bill me for it. Eventually, they compromised and installed an analog 4 digit meter for free.

I mean seriously, if I'm going to pay for the meter out right, I consider that meter to be MINE! They disagreed. I was supposed to pay for it, but they still owned it. It's not like I could take it with me when I move.

Another top reason they want those fancy meters is because they can charge more for daytime usage if they can discern which KWH were used at what time. Just what we need. More complexity from a utility company. The overwhelming majority of consumers won't be reading their meters. They'll just get the new rate structure forced on them and electric companies will boost their bottom lines.

This is total greenwashing to obscure their greed by promoting a potentially green side effect of the technology.

Bruce Arkwright, Jr.
I don't know what you're on about. Taking the electricity you generate if you have a grid-tied home electricity generator, the more you generate the less you consume from the power company. This will happen regardless of what kind of meter you have. Now at some point you may generate more electricity than you consume, at which point you do need a single meter that runs backwards so you can sell the excess to the power company. When I installed solar panels my power company installed such a meter.

Maybe you know something about the Texas meters, but you're not communicating it clearly.

A digital meter is definitely a big incentive to save power, especially if its display is somewhere where you'll constantly notice it. Mine is outside by the door. Better still would be a networked meter so you can view your consumption minute-by-minute and over time.

Why shall the clients, direct or indirectly pay for meters? The actual electric meters needs power to work, that power it's paid by the supplier so that company will save milions a year in less consumption. They will need less emploies once there are nobody to read the counters.
The supplier has a good ROI so is not fair oblige the client to pay, in the same way the company do not pay to clients when they have good profits

Smart Meters still need meter readers or a method of communication of the data to the power company. One method is to have a drive by using un-licensed radio. That way the meter reader doesn't have to get out, worry about dogs or parking the van to read your meter. Another method is to use the power line as the communication medium to a central data hub. The method described is a true demand side method where communication is 2-way. Also, remember that some Smart Meters can also disconnect the user during emergency conditions. Get more details on installation and monthly fees as well as the rules of the utility disconnect methods prior to installing. The utility wants consumers to enroll in these programs so they don't have to build additional power plants to meet peak demand days.

On-peak Off peak are a rip off to the consumer.(Example)
Utility pays 5.4 cents per kilowatt up to 1000 kw's

Lets say a utility has 5 customers (small scale)

4 consume energy,using 400 kw's total. 100kw's each.
there allowed 200 each before the on peak.

The fifth consumer uses 210 kw's

Now the fifth customer pays more for the extra 10 kw's.

Total kw's used by all 5 customers is 610 kw's

The utility didnt pay any more for any extra kw's, because they didnt need to buy any extra kw's.
so why should the fifth customer pay any more. ?

Its going on right now with there Tier scale.(life line)

Smart meters are better than dumb meters, but think twice about yet another meter that offers no real time information and no way to convey real time information to your smart house.

This is a HUGE missed opportunity. If our smart house can understand real time usage, a tidal wave of innovation will be unleashed saving billions in energy. Imagine coordinated appliances scheduling themselves.

As it is, “Not so Smart Meters” do away with meter readers and help out with load leveling.

Now if we are lucky, the utility will share useful information… or perhaps make it into a “profit center” selling you your information.

Smart consumers need access to their real time usage information to make real time decisions.