[jbeckton]

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has Embarked on the Largest Implementation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Technology in the United States to date.

Some highlights from the article in Transmission and Distribution Mag:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ver five years, PG&E (San Francisco, California, U.S.) will roll out its SmartMeter program at a cost of US$1.7 billion. By the end of 2011, it will deploy approximately 10.3 million new meters at nearly 6 million homes and businesses across PG&E's 70,000-sq mile (181,300-sq km) service area. It also will deploy a communications network and back-end IT systems capable of collecting and processing hourly electric and daily gas usage data.

The SmartMeter program will enable PG&E to provide its customers with demand-response rate options to reduce peak energy use by encouraging customers to shift demand to off-peak periods. Because electricity purchased in peak periods is more expensive, this load shift will reduce power procurement costs. It also will provide a variety of improvements in customer service, such as more accurate billing, and will eliminate the need for customers to unlock their gates and tie up their dogs on days meter readers are scheduled to visit.
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The SmartMeter program will pay for itself over the projected life of the system; benefits will exceed costs.
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PG&E is exploring new emerging intelligent grid technologies that could enhance the SmartMeter program to provide benefits such as automation of distribution equipment and access to energy from idle plug-in hybrid electric vehicles using emerging vehicle-to-grid technology.
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In recent years, solid-state meters with such devices have also come down in price. Among other benefits, these new meters would enable broad-based load control (including load limiting). They would also facilitate communications with the programmable communicating thermostat technology being promoted and codified by the California Energy Commission through California's Title 24 building code. And they would provide for future communication with household appliances, enabling possible options such as setting appliances to turn on when energy prices drop to a certain level.http://tdworld.com/customer_service/pge ... i_rollout/