Research firm Parks Associates says 8.3 million smart electric meters have been installed at U.S. residences to date – a little more than 6 percent of the total, up from about 4.7 at the end of last year.

That's according to a new report from research firm Parks Associates released this week, which counted up smart meter penetration across a range of U.S. utilities.

But the real growth is set to come in the next few years, as large-scale smart meter deployments by the country's biggest utilities - as well as smaller scale installations by hundreds of smaller cooperative, municipal and public utilities – continue, according to Bill Ablondi, Parks Associates' director of home systems research.

Parks Associates noted that investor-owned utilities - those that aren't publicly owned - made up the largest number of smart meters installed so far.

Other investor-owned utilities have made strides in installed smart electric meters, according to Parks Associates. They include Southern Co. subsidiaries Georgia Power with 750,000 meters out of a planned 2.16 million, and Alabama Power with 448,000 meters out of a planned 1.2 million meters.

From the article, "8.3M Smart Meters and Counting in U.S." by Jeff St. John

Next: DOE Hands Out $47M for Smart Grid Demos

Be the first to leave a comment.

Have a comment? Login or create an account to start a discussion.