I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner. Wasn’t technology going to change the world? But then I remember in grade school they told us the metric system was coming soon….

The thing the new meters make possible, but the PUC and Idaho Power haven’t allowed, is time of day pricing. That, combined with the new meters, would allow you to benefit from, say, running your water heater at 5 am, when spot rates are .02 / kwh, instead of the middle of the of the day when spot rates are .20 / kwh or higher. The europeans have been doing it since the early 90s.

The new meters are a baby step in the right direction. Let’s hope the finish the journey.

My house has had the new, remote-read meter for several years.
One big advantage to it for those of us outside town is that we no longer have to leave the gate open on meter-reading days — which for many people has meant moving the horses, cows or whatever out of the pasture the lane passes through, penning up the dogs, maybe even warning the hands not to shoot strangers see wandering around in back of the house.
While Cyclops’ dire prognostication is accurate, I doubt it would be used quite that way (you already can sign up to voluntarily let them turn off your air conditioner for a few minutes when power usage threatens to overload the circuits. The plan is they would cut off some people for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, then turn them back on and cut off some others, sort of rolling it along).
These also will enable handling “rolling blackouts” the same way, even cutting off homes but not businesses, and especially not hospitals.
Also eventually should have a way of people letting them know if someone in the house is using some electrical device that’s necessary at all times, such as certain breathing apparatus, etc.; that house could be left connected even when all the others around it are shut off for a few minutes.
The system certainly could be misused and abused, but that seems highly unlikely (the power company doesn’t like being sued for killing someone by cutting off their oxygen supply or somesuch).
And, yes, as Ready Kilowatt says, it would make it much easier to take advantage of time-of-day pricing.
OMG, does this sound like I’m actually in favor of something? Damn! There goes my reputation!

The conservative dinosaurs will shriek when you change anything, it is merely a reptillian reflex action.

This is a good thing. The days of the “use all you want feast of energy” are over. We need to be able to manage what we have available, not just continue building more capacity for that one day in July when it hits 115 degrees, after a 75 degree night.

Unless our economy continues to fall forever, oil prices are going to head for uncharted territory in the next year or two, and will drag all energy prices up as well. We are experiencing a paradigm shift where our old grand style of living is going away, to be replaced with a much simpler, lower energy, more localized system.

The best thing to do is get ahead of the curve now. Hoping for a return to cheap energy is personal and societal suicide.

JIMV:
Yeah, but wouldn’t you rather have them cut it off for a few minutes each hour (house shouldn’t heat up a whole lot in a few minutes) than have it go off for hours from a major blackout when the circuits overload and go boom?

“JIMV:
Yeah, but wouldn’t you rather have them cut it off for a few minutes each hour (house shouldn’t heat up a whole lot in a few minutes) than have it go off for hours from a major blackout when the circuits overload and go boom?”

This would be OK if that was all they did and they did it rarely. Instead they shut us down for hours on hot days mid day. Worse, my hobby is audio. I have some nice audio gear and the power company slamming the power on and off plays hell with decent gear. If they fry something they sure don’t pay for it.

If I remember correctly, the communication transmission is broadcast through the electric wiring that connects to the meter.