Michael Giberson
From the Wind Power Law Blog in New York, Clifford Rohde takes a break from wind power law to report on his shift to National Grid’s time-of-use rates, a move that required the utility to install a “smart meter.” (He chronicled the first part of this effort in April, shortly after mailing in his request.)
Four months later:
Well it finally happened August 12 … On that date, National Grid appears to have installed a new “smart meter” on my house. (I say “appears” only because no one told me it was going to be installed; I found out only because I received a signed agreement from National Grid in the mail and went and checked the meter.)
… I note that as a consumer I do find it frustrating that I am not aware -yet at least- of any way to obtain usage information other than by going outside my house and looking at the meter. This analog solution to a seemingly digital issue seems a bit archaic.
His time-of-use rate will shift back to a flat “off-season” rate at the end of the month, and then he’ll have a few months to prepare for the winter peak. Rohde promises updates.
Answer to his problem? Wireless webcam in front of the meter.
Add some OCR software to decode the image and then it can write to a data file for further energy management and budget decision-making. With a little software it could even Tweet you when usage spikes.
The smart grid as kluge! I like it.
While geek answers to the problem would be fun, it sounds like the meter is only going to be half as effective as it could be. To bad.
Actually Fred, it is likely that National Grid has the capability to provide web-based access to (at least) hourly consumption information. Whether they care enough to implement that capability is a different question, but the National Grid smart grid web pages suggest that it is part of the company’s plan to allow this.
See: http://www.nationalgridus.com/energy/index.asp
A video linked from that page mentions two-way communication with customers, web access and PDA/smart phone possibilities, integration with distributed generation, and other good things.