[Boatanchors] "Smart" Electric Meters

[Revcom]

Most of those are done by VHF/UHF telemetry communications.  They
can drive by and read meters very rapidly.  The meter is capable of watching
and recording peak demand by user and also to be able to control some
loads, if customer signs up for it, to level off the load peaks.  Load
management
has been used for years in power industry, mainly in the industrial and
agri-
culture enviornment.   Base load is not a big concern, it is the peak demand
when all the A/C units kick on and other heavy demands. We have them here,
I have a "smart" meter on my house now.

Our local city water meters are already equipped with such remote reading,
they just drive by and read the talley.  Talk is doing samething to control
water flow, esp during summer lawn watering, reduce peak demand on the
system.

I'm all for it, peak demand is reason to build humongeus power plants to
absorb that peak when it hits to avoid brown outs.

Have not seen any that deploy BPL technology, most are PLC (sub Mhz
RF on power line) or over air RF in VHF/UHF range.

Canada has them all over the place, at least did 20 years ago.

Rod
K0EQH

----- Original Message -----
From: <RKofler at aol.com>
To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 9:39 AM
Subject: [Boatanchors] "Smart" Electric Meters


> I read yesterday in a newspaper article that my  local electric utility
> company, Portland General Electric Co., is raising the  rates to pay for
installing
> so called "smart electric meters". The article did  not go into any
technical
> detail, but it said these meters would be able to be  read remotely and
> eventually they would have a situation where they could  remotely regulate
some
> aspects of customers power usage during peak hours. My  concern is that
these
> meters will be a source of RF interference similar to BPL.  Anybody have
> experience with these "smart meters"?
>
> Thanks
> Roger K7DDG
>
>
>
>
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