How Smart Meters Are the Right Choice   by Traci Dietz

in Business    (submitted 2012-01-26)

Anyone who opens a business is aware of the many different ways you can accumulate costs. Of course, you have to pay the landlord, your employees, and your manufacturers. One item that seems to fall by the wayside when people are budgeting for their business venture is the cost of utilities. You can rack up some high figures paying for water, recycling, or natural gas.

One of your largest drains, however, will be the money you spend on electricity.

Between lights, computer hardware, and other mechanical devices in your place of business, the electricity costs may seem like they will spiral quickly out of control. You can reduce your expenditures on energy by following a few simple pieces of advice and technology. In this article we'll examine one of those solutions as a way to help your business grow.

The allure of the smart meter

Like any electricity meter, but smarter, the smart meter is beginning to make its mark on society. The smarter part becomes apparent when you see that it is capable of measuring and analyzing your energy consumption and of sending and receiving communications from the home base of your energy network. When you have a whole network of residences and companies that are set up with smart meters, and they are all able to communicate with each other, you have a smart grid.

A smart grid requires a central mainframe from the energy company, and this is used to sift through and process the wealth of information that comes flying back from the smart meters. The computer serves dual duty, in fact, because it takes the role of the meter man who would normally need to be hired to connect or disconnect power to a business, or to make subtle changes to the meter.

What are the positives of a smart meter for my business?

Smart meters are a good choice for both the energy consumer (you) and the energy provider. A third beneficiary of this new and wonderful technology is the planet itself, as the smart meters help maintain our environment.

Each smart meter comes standard with technology that makes it easy to track your business's energy consumption over any period of time, which can lead to better energy saving decisions on your and your employees' part. The data collected by the smart meter is then used to help your business by developing a variable price setup where your energy costs shift depending on the time of day, which is a smart way to cut a good chunk off of your electrical bill.

As you can see, half hourly metering are a good decision for business owners, electric companies, and the environment, since they enable all parties involved to collaborate on the best use and price of half hour electric for the entire area.

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