Potential energy savings from smart meters is largely unrealized

Smart meters are gaining popularity, but their potential to save energy goes largely unrealized, according to research by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Though investing billions in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), most utilities have vastly underused this technology that can help customers save energy, ACEEE says. AMI is now in place in many states, covering nearly half of all meters in the United States.

AMI measures electricity use in short intervals (typically 15 minutes or 60 minutes) rather than by the month. Electricity providers can use such timely, granular data to better manage and optimize generation and grid operations, allowing for cost reduction and faster response to power outages.

The data can also be used to offer better programs and share insights to encourage customers to save energy. Despite these potential benefits, only one of the 52 utilities that ACEEE surveyed—Portland General Electric (PGE)—is building its capacity to optimize use of AMI to save energy.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.