A recent ABC news segment featured the SmartMeters, based on work from the Demand Response project.
A recent vote by the California’s Public Utilities Commission paved the way for a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. plan to upgrade all of the company’s residential electricity and natural gas meters, to CITRIS-based SmartMeters, a five-year project that promises to change the way the utility’s customers pay for power.
The new SmartMeters will eliminate the need for meter readers by sending data directly to San Francisco’s PG&E over power lines and wireless transmitters. The meters also will track how much energy each customer uses hour-by-hour, allowing the utility to charge different prices for power consumed at different times of the day.
These innovative devices are based on work done by CITRIS researchers, including Paul Wright, Ed Arens, David Auslander and Jan Rabaey, with support from the California Energy Commission to combine “demand response” energy pricing with a network of tiny sensors and smart thermostats for the home.