1/4/2024 0 Comments Edt smart utilityIn California, privacy rules adopted in 2011 by the Public Utilities Commission require each utility to issue an annual transparency report describing the number of legal demands received for usage information and the number of customers whose records were actually disclosed. Some episodes seem to give legs to the concerns. Canadian director Josh del Sol even shot a documentary called a documentary called " Take back your power", investigating, he says, "the erosion of rights in the name of 'smart' and 'green'". Sounds paranoid? Kind of, but in a post-Snowden world many people seem to believe, for right or wrong, that " paranoia is a virtue". Privacy is probably the most sensitive issue: similarly to what happens with phone calls metadata, information about the energy consumption of a family or of an individual, can reveal a lot of details about the life of the persons monitored.įrom when and for how long they stay at home, to the kind of devices used (expensive gadgets, medical equipment and so on), to the movements inside the house - from the dining room (where the TV has just been turned on) to the kitchen. The country-level installed base of electric smart meters is expected to be led by China, with more than 435 million electric devices installed by December 31, 2020, followed by the United States with about 132 million by the same date.ĭespite the promise of empowering people through enhanced consumption data and provide savings, however, some people are scared and resist the idea of smart metering, citing concerns about meter accuracy, data security, and health. The smart meters market is scheduled to grow significantly in the near future: in the next ten years or so, - Navigant Research forecasts - the overall economic opportunity coming from smart metering will amount to nearly $57 billion worldwide. Of course, it's not enough to have information available, you have to able to analyse it as well PECO uses for this a software developed by business intelligence company Qlik to leverage the big data their meters are generating and have a better understanding of how much energy their customers are using. "There's a benefit to both suppliers and the customer in that case - he adds - The customer's bill goes down if he shifts his lifestyle to do more stuff on a Saturday, while the electric company benefits by spreading out that load more in a weekend instead of a weekday". ![]() Since, as a supplier and as an electric distribution company, there's a lot easier generation available on a weekend than there is a weekday, knowing this we would try to shift that customer's load usage and consumption behaviors to a weekend instead of on a weekday, by giving them free electricity on a Saturday. "Let's say we have a customer, my father for example - Key manager for Advanced Grid Operations and Technology of Philadelphia-based utility PECO, Ron Katzman, says - who doesn't use electricity very much on the weekends. The real time monitoring and the possibility to adjust and seamlessly modify the energy supply of a certain customer, is also what allows utilities and energy companies to apply different rates according to the time of the day, or the day of the week, in which the energy is used. ![]() Now it can be done almost instantaneously. ![]() In the read-only era, if somebody got shut off for not paying the bills, and then wanted to be turned back on, the company had to send a technician, which was expensive, and it could take up to a couple of days to have the service up and running again. Perhaps the clearest example of this, is the remote connect‑disconnect switch.
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