Though I have often had to present on the subject of SAP Industry Solutions, such as the Utility Industry and more specifically, on Smart Meters, until very recently, I had not been able to watch a consumer in action actually using a Smart Meter. Why would I be interested, and why should you be?
- Smart Meters, coupled with advanced SAP Analytical Dashboards based on xCelsius, only seemed to be of value to the Utility Industry.
- The Electrical Utility Industry seemed to primarily be using Smart Meters to:
Inform consumers that they could save money doing laundry late at night (I don’t like to hear the buzzer saying the dryer is done in the middle of the night, personally)
- Via the use of Smart Meters, and dashboards based on SAP smart meter analytics, the Utility Industry has more information and ability to manage the interconnection of their power grids and thus, can smooth out supply and demand patterns.
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All well and good, but as they say, WIIFME (What’s In It For Me).
I recently got to watch an Uber-Geek buy a wired house and see how he uses the output of the Smart Meter at the consumer level:
- First off, his iPhone is now his Thermostat. Though the house is, of course, equipped with a fully functioning Thermostat, it has an IP address and he controls the temperature, both on a scheduled basis and in response to complaints from the er, occupants by going to an app and using a slider control (he works in Houston, his house is in Miami) to adjust the temp.
- He can see, using his iPhone and iPad, a consumer level analytical dashboard of how much his house is costing to operate on a Monthly/Daily/Hourly basis.
- Because the feedback loop is easy, remotely accessible, and always there, and alert driven (heat level too high, occupant registers a complaint), attention is now paid to the system. I have to admit, I have never paid attention to anything other than the bill, which is always too high.
- The SER (System Efficiency Rating) of the A/C, though meeting the current standards, could have been much higher (which would not have even been possible to research or of interest, prior to the internet and the Smart Meter enabled feedback loop).
I have always wondered why Wal-Mart can demand annual cost reductions from their suppliers but my utility company only ever tells me how little my rates are going up.
With this Smart Meter system, I can see how the consumer can, using real-time analytics, do all that is possible to consume electricity in the most efficient way possible. I can also see that consumers, if they aggregate their data, will definitely start pushing back on the utilities and asking what they have done to lower their cost of production, Transmission, Distribution and Maintenance! All numbers that can be measured, communicated, and most importantly, improved.
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