by K. T. Weaver, SkyVision Solutions, November 14, 2017; Updated February 2, 2019
There has been some opposition to smart meters that includes claims such as the following:
The power required to run the AMI meter is borne by the homeowner, this was never disclosed to the public that their bill will go up by over ~$115.00 per year just to power the meter.
I respectfully disagree with the above type of claim and will provide various levels of evidence on this webpage to demonstrate that electric utility meter electronics are actually powered from line voltage that is not registered as consumption for the consumer.
There are lots of reasons to oppose smart meters, but how much power they consume and whether it is registered by the meter is not one of them.
Design evidence demonstrates that smart meter electronics are powered by the utility line voltage, and the meter power usage in any case is quite small and wouldn’t be much of a factor to the individual consumer even if it were registered to the customer.
Naperville Smart Grid Initiative (NSGI)
My first exposure to the controversies surrounding smart meters started in my local residential area in the 2011 and 2012 timeframe when the City of Naperville received Federal funds to help install smart meters for its residential customers. Very early on, the City was asked:
“How much power does the new meter draw?”
To this question, the City responded:
“The smart meters draw various amounts of power depending on their communication technology and manufacturer design. The power to run the smart meters is not metered to the customer and is considered ‘line-loss’ energy consumption to the Department of Public Utilities-Electric.”
Since that time, I have not encountered credible information to make a different conclusion than was supplied by the City of Naperville several years ago.
Florida Power & Light (FPL)
FPL answers a similar question as posed above at https://www.fpl.com/smart-meters/faq.html, where it says:
Do I have to pay for the cost for electricity needed by the meter to transmit usage information to FPL?
No. There are essentially two “sides” of the meter – the source side, which is the utility side, and the demand side, which is the home and business side that is used to calculate your bill. The power used to drive the meter and communicate with FPL is obtained from the source side of the meter and thus is not registered on the display, nor charged to the customer.
Meter Manufacturer Information
ACLARA Meter Specifications
Let’s look at how manufacturers look at the power consumption aspects of smart meters. ACLARA (formerly GE) is one of the main manufacturers of smart meters. Here is a recent (2017) meter specification sheet at this link:
The image to the side of this page is from that specification sheet. Notice where it says “Low starting watts; capture energy consumption at levels typically not registered by electromechanical meters.”
Elsewhere in the same sheet is says that the “starting watts” is either 12 watts at 240 volts or 6 watts at 120 volts. An analog meter by comparison cannot normally register power consumption until it reaches something like 24 or 25 watts. This can account for some of the differences one might see between switching from one type of meter to another. If the power consumption of the home is between 12 watts and 24 watts as one example, it would not be detected by an analog meter but would with the ACLARA meter.
Also note that the specification sheet says “Low burden, which minimizes utility system losses.” The utility industry normally refers to the power consumption of a utility meter as a “burden” as it truly is a burden to the utility and not registered to the consumer. Since the burden is not registered to anyone, it is also considered to be among the many “line losses” in the distribution system that utility companies must face. The specification sheet refers to a “typical watt loss: 0.7 Watts” which would be the actual power consumption value that ACLARA is claiming for its meters, i.e., a very “low burden.” Note that this power consumption level would be nearly negligible to an individual consumer whether or not it could in fact be registered by a smart meter.
Elster REX2 Meter Specifications
The smart meter used in my local residential area is a version of the Elster REX2 model with specifications as given at the link below:
https://skyvisionsolutions.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/elster-rex2-ea-meter.pdf
For this meter under the category of “General performance characteristics” it says that the “Burden” is “Less than 1.5 W.”
In another document written by Elster it is stated:
“EnergyAxis consumes less energy during operation than other AMI/Smart Grid networks. Due to highly efficient radio design, EnergyAxis residential smart meters consume as little as one quarter of the energy required in some competing smart grid solutions. In fact, the energy savings across a large population of meters, over the system life cycle, can translate to many gigawatt hours of avoided system losses.” [emphasis added]
Again note how the manufacturer is boasting about how little power the meter consumes in order to avoid “system losses.” If the power consumed by a smart meter were charged to the customer, this power would not be referred as a system loss.
Smart Meter Power Supply Design
According to Texas Instruments which has designed smart meter power supplies:
“Smart meters use more advanced communication interfaces as compared to conventional IR (Infra-Red) and IrDA (Infra-red Data association) interfaces; they also require more memory and a more powerful microcontroller. These features increase the power consumption which necessitates the use of switch-mode power supply (SMPS) rather than a capacitive-drop power supply. …
Compliance with efficiency standards – and more importantly, compliance with lower power-consumption requirements – poses more challenges for SMPS designers as you cannot bill customers for the energy that a meter uses. On the other hand, the smart meter energy usage should not place unacceptable power demands on utilities either. … [emphasis added]
The meter itself typically consumes less than 1W for most of its operating life, which is governed by the utility’s energy-efficiency regulations. This high light-load efficiency is a main contributor to the average power consumption.” [emphasis added]
Understanding How the Meter Electronics Gets its Power
To understand how the meter electronics gets its power, let’s first make sure we understand that when a utility meter is plugged into a meter enclosure with its “stabs,” current from the utility company is coming into the meter through the top connectors. This is standard. (see video below.)
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Now let’s look at an expanded view of an Elster REX-type smart meter as shown in the graphic below. In the components marked as “8 – voltage connectors,” these are the conductors that are in actual physical contact with the top meter stabs as utility supplied current enters the meter and thus also allows voltage to be supplied to the “4 – electronic assembly” portion of the meter. In this configuration, there is no other alternative but to conclude that power being supplied to the meter electronics is prior to current flowing through the meter sensing devices which are inside the meter and which then at that point would register power being supplied to the customer’s load.
To further illustrate exactly how the meter electronics is supplied with voltage, below are actual photos taken during the course of disassembling a smart meter:
Sanity Check on How Things Work
Sometimes in confirming how things work with regard to smart meters, it is instructive to engage in a bit of a “sanity check” or mental exercise. Consider for a moment that most smart meters being deployed today have a “remote disconnect” switch. In fact, it is advertised that with smart meters, the utility can connect/ disconnect a customer remotely by switching the internal meter switch in the smart meter for reasons such as:
- Remote Connect for Move-In
- Remote Connect for Reinstatement on Payment
- Remote Disconnect for Move-Out
- Remote Disconnect for Non-Payment
If the smart meter were powered from the customer-side of the meter (with resultant registration of self-consumption power), once the customer were disconnected, then there would be no power to cause a “remote connect.” This is especially true since many smart meters deployed today are not equipped with batteries. What is actually the case, since the smart meter electronics are powered from the utility side of the meter, is that the meter remains powered, able to receive and send RF signals, even when the customer’s service has been disconnected through the remote disconnect switch.
Supplemental Information
The claim of someone’s bill going up by approximately $115 per year (due to smart meter power consumption) was based upon results by one individual in a home with a smart meter and whose home was unoccupied for a period of time and where it was believed there could be no electrical loads. An unexplainable consumption level of approximately 100 watts as measured by the smart meter was attributed to the smart meter. Even if some level of power consumption registration for a smart meter could be found to be attributed to the meter itself (see below), it is not plausible that the meter would be found to cause an average load of 100 watts based upon information you have already reviewed from this webpage.
Although the powering of the smart meter electronics has been shown to be a “burden” to the utility, I have read that during the course of measuring the current being supplied to the customer, there is effectively an interaction between the current sensor and the conductors passing current through the meter to the customer that results in a small amount of electrical consumption. This consumption that is related to the current sensor could be on the order of a fraction of a watt (as a function of load) and would be registered by the meter as a part of the measurement process. A similar registration process would occur with the traditional electromechanical meter.
Supplemental Information (Updated)
I found a document posted at a utility website dated March 2018, authored by Itron, and intended to refute claims by the individual that “the power required to run the AMI meter is borne by the homeowner”:
“The energy used to run the meter is not metered. The power supply connection is connected to the line side of the meter (top blades) and the current measurements are taken on only the current which flows through the load side connections. Also, ANSI requires the meter to pass a NO load test which validates the meter does not accumulate when only voltage is applied. The device has been tested by Metlabs, Measurement Canada, several utility customers, and internal certification to meet all standards regulating the meters.”
“Also, the power needed to run the meter is less [than] 5 watts. This means that during the day a meter would use less than .120 kWh per day. This reading has been validated by Metlabs, MC, Several utility customers, and internal.”
“Again, the end customer is not billed for the energy to run the meter. The analysis also completely flawed due to the error in the 2.1 kWh vs 0.120 kWh per day.”
“The power to run the meter is not measured or charged to the customer.”
Another meter manufacturer (ACLARA) responded to similar self-registration claims in a document dated August 22, 2018:
“Both analog and digital meters require power to operate. Design for efficiency has always been a factor in meter design because a large number of meters are typically present on an electric distribution grid. In both analog and digital electricity meters the energy used to power the meter is taken from the utility side of the load connection. Because the current needed to self-power the meter does not pass through the current sensing element, it is not measured by the meter and contributes nothing to the measured load. In reality, the meters use approximately 1 Watt of power, which amounts to 1 kilowatt-hour about every 42 days. At retail price, the electricity used to power the meter would cost about one dollar per year. Regardless of the amount, this does not contribute to the consumer’s billed usage.
The author of the Presentation made assumptions that the load being reported on an Energy Insight App connected wirelessly to the smart meter were the readings of the meter self-usage. Since this is by design, not possible, it strongly suggests that there are other small electrical loads present (totaling approximately 100 Watts) that [the person] was unaware of or deliberately ignored when conducting his testing and writing his presentation. These other loads have nothing to do with the meter and may have contributed to the other misleading observations.”
In addition, expert testimony in a utility rate case was provided in 2017 regarding the claim that the “company is billing customers for the electricity being consumed by smart meters, and that smart meters cause an increase in customer energy consumption.”:
“The claim that smart meters measure the power requirements of the meter as part of a customer’s billed electric consumption is incorrect. Electric meters pull energy to operate from the line side of the meter. This energy is referred to as internal ‘burden’ energy. The Company’s meters, including AMI meters, comply with American National Standard Institute standard C12.20, which establishes the performance criteria for electricity meters, including Section 5.5.4.8 Test 8: Internal Meter Losses (the internal energy usage of a meter, or burden energy). Compliance is a requirement of the Technical Standards for Electric Service as established by the Commission.”
“The Company’s MTC has also tested whether the Company’s smart meters register energy consumption by the customer when service is disconnected but the meter electronics are still energized. After 70 hours, the meters showed no accumulation of kWh delivered, which shows that the burden usage of the meter is connected to the line side and customers are not charged this energy consumption.”
“The claim that smart meters measure the power requirements of the meter as part of a customer’s billed electric consumption is incorrect and must be disregarded as inconsistent with the design and actual operation of the Company’s AMI meters. As discussed in the rebuttal testimony of Company …, electric meters receive power supply from the line side of the meter, which prevents the meter from including the meter’s usage in the reporting of customer consumption. The claim that any monthly billed electric usage includes power consumed by the meter is inconsistent with the meter’s design.”
“One of the features of the Company’s smart meter for residential customers is the capability to perform remote service disconnection and reconnection of electric service. If RCG’s claim were true, then a meter serving a disconnected customer would continue to record electric consumption during the period of service disconnection. Meter data for disconnected customers confirm that electric consumption does actually stop during the duration of time that passes between a remote disconnection and a subsequent reconnection. The claim that monthly billed electric usage includes power consumed by the meter is inconsistent with the Company’s operational observations.”
“The power requirements of metering equipment, also referred to as the electrical internal burden, are included in the Company’s overall electric distribution system losses, and therefore are included in the Company’s total electric supply requirements. These metering electrical internal burdens are not unique to AMI smart meters, and represent a cost that must be shared among all customers receiving power supply service from the Company.”
Conclusions of the Michigan Public Service Commission
The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) issued an Order in 2018 that dealt with the issue of “Electric Consumption by AMI Meters.” In its Order dated in March 2018, for Case No. U-18322 in the matter of the application for Consumers Energy Company, the PSC stated:
“The Commission adopts the ALJ’s findings and conclusions. Consumers [Energy Company] presented credible testimony and evidence showing that the electricity consumed by an AMI meter, in general, is not as extensive as estimated by the RCG and that, in any event, the consumption is not registered on the customer side.”
Smart Grid Awareness 