Discussion on:

Smart meters will tap into your home network, says report

had a lot of extra bandwith and offered low cost fast internet access to customers. That could make internet providers lower prices.

There are many varied reasons for the utilities to upgrade the grid infrastructure and it will happen. But what is even more powerful is we know that consumers are becoming more interested and engaged in their electricity consumption. It?s a big budget line item and for a long time we have just accepted and paid it each and every month.

We really see consumers getting much more interested in becoming more active in managing electricity consumption and taking steps to drive it down. $?s and cents are the primary motivator but there is also a great deal of satisfaction taken for doing the right thing and making a difference.

What we know definitively is access to better information ? real time information can make a huge difference in reducing electricity consumption. There are many academic, utility sponsored and manufacturer sponsored research studies and the general conclusion is just better information alone can reduce consumption by 5-15%. For a family spending $100 - $250 per month on electricity that?s a big deal. The aggregated potential impact from millions of homes reducing their consumption by 5-15% is huge for the economy and the environment.

The utilities will bring solutions to the market??but there are proven energy monitoring options on the market today. For as little as $100 families can gain access to this real time information today and begin to take control of this important issue and important monthly budget item.

We have been in the business of real time electricity information since 2003 and it?s gratifying to see this momentum. For more information go to www.bluelineinnovations.com.

Since 2003 I have been advocating the idea that wireless routers gain
intelligence and become the hub of applications that live in the air.
Most people turn their PCs off at night -- they're not on all the time.
And thus these applications will be off at night, unless they're moved
to a device that does not turn off, like the router.

Too bad the people trying to implement the meters aren't as smart as the meters. It is technology looking for a home that isn't worth the cost at this time. It could easily be done by software in the PC giving people the control of their own home not someone else invading them. Turning off the computer and passwording the systems will be a requirement. upset employees like the one who turned off the cars will also be a problem. Hackers is the biggest. The idea has more problems than helps.

@DadsPad: I live in Boulder, CO, where we have the first installed Smart Grid in the nation. It consists of a separate fiber network to the curb put in by Xcel, our power company. Because at the moment there are no devices for attaching appliances to the Smart Grid, the fiber mostly sits dark, except for whatever traffic Xcel does with our smart meters (which we have no real access to).

However, in response to an email, Xcel has told me they currently have no plans to offer internet service. I have no idea what they plan to do with all that bandwidth, or why they bothered to put it in in the first place. If all you're doing is periodic polling of appliances (light turned on, now the light is turned off, etc.), it seems to me they could have put modems on our phone lines and gotten all the bandwidth they needed.