Smart Meter

A smart meter is an electronic device that records utility consumption data, including electric energy, voltage, current and power factor, and communicates that information to both the consumer and the utility through telemetry. What distinguishes a smart meter from older automatic meter reading equipment is two way communication between the meter and the utility, known as advanced metering infrastructure, rather than the one way transmission that automatic meter reading provided. Smart meters typically record consumption near real time and report at short intervals throughout the day, and versions exist for electricity, natural gas, water and district heating. They communicate over wireless technologies such as cellular, Wi-Fi, mesh networks, LoRa or Zigbee, over power line communication, or over fixed wired connections, and this infrastructure lets utilities offer time based pricing, cut the cost of manual meter reading and give consumers more detailed information about their own energy use. A smart meter is only one component of a larger smart grid rather than a complete smart grid in itself.