The issues are complicated and the answers will vary, utility by utility, but here are some of the considerations that utilities are facing:
1. Is the purpose of the connection to better inform the consumer of information on consumption and pricing or to give the utility direct control for load reduction?
2. If direct load reduction, what is the value of the load shedding capacity of the home…that is if an individual home uses little power, is it cost effective to try to do load control at that home (that is, is there a threshold of consumption that estalishes it as cost effective)? Is an interruption of the Broadband service for a few homes significant to the management of the grid?
3. Is the utility going to be able to support real-time pricing (both with sytems and politically) or will it be limited to generalized time periods for “peak charges”…as pricing approaches real-time pricing the greater the need to signal consumers, and the more need for there to be a good user interface for consumers to atuomate their interaction with the pricing information. What will the pricing models be for use of the commercial wireless networks for extensive messaging, which is the model most of the meter vendors have been pushing?
5. What is the anticipated role of the need to communicate with the charging systems for plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles…the more communication required, the greater driver to assure a reliable connection?
6. While a broadband connection interruption might interfere with a reading at the time of a billing cycle end, utilities have always had methods to address missed reads. The loss of a consumer’s broadband connection, where the connection is transmitting information to the utility, may be an alert for the utility that they may need to check-in with the customer; depending on the model, the customer may lose their ability to get a preferential rate (where given for load control), or get the information they need to reduce their electric bill, or only be able to charge their vehicle other than during a default window set by the utility.

The previous comment, that there is much to do for the utility to be able to use increased magnitudes of data to improve operations is very true.

1. Reliability – they must have assured two-way communication with the meters 100% of the time. Even if the electric utility customer is not actually a broadband customer, even if the customer does not pay his broadband bill and gets his internet service shut off, the electric utility company must be able to communicate with the meter. What happens if/when the broadband company has to do maintenance on their network? Is there a redundant fall-back network for meter communications or the meters pretty much incommunicado during the maintenance window?

2. Security.

A third concern is cost – broadband companies must offer meter communication at lower costs than the technology currently used by the utilities. If the above two basic requirements and the cost concern can be met by the broadband companies, I don’t see a reason why utilities would not sign up to use the broadband channel to get meter data.

LL

The best thing you could do is buy a little device with CT’s that monitors your usage real time and displays in dollars what you’re using right now. If you’re on a Time of Use Rate at 30 cents per hour, you’ll care a lot about your usage from 2-5 pm, when it costs 6 times more to buy electricity. That will alter consumptive behavior as fast as gas prices of $4.00.