Residential smart meters penetration surpasses 70% in US
Image: National Grid
In 2022 there were 119.3 million smart meters deployed in the US, up by approximately 8 million from 2021, the FERC’s 2024 annual assessment records.
Based on publicly available data, the assessment cites EIA data that these 119.3 million smart meters represent over 72% of the 165 million total meters in operation across all customer classes – and the first time since the assessment was published (since 2006) that the penetration for the residential customer class was greater than 70%.
Moreover, in the Pacific, South Atlantic and West South Central census divisions, utilities reported aggregate totals of advanced meters that represent penetration rates greater than 80% in those regions, with the latter on 87% the highest in the US.
All other regions recorded penetrations over 50%, except for the Middle Atlantic on 44% and New England on just 23%.
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The penetrations also varied by customer class, averaging 72.7% in the residential sector but lower at 69.3% in the commercial and 68.5% in the industrial classes.
The 8 million smart meter increase in 2022 – similar in number to previous years – corresponded to an average 7.3% annual increase, with the largest increase in numbers, 14%, recorded in the South Atlantic division and led by Virginia Electric & Power in Virginia and Florida Power and Light and JEA in Florida, which reported more than 686,000, 552,000, and 205,000 additional smart meters in 2022 respectively.
However, the largest percentage increase, 15%, was experienced in the Mountain division, with Public Service Co. in Colorado and PacifiCorp in Utah and Idaho reporting more than 409,000, 163,000, and 85,000 additional smart meters in 2022 compared to 2021, respectively.
Demand response assessment
Turning to demand response, the other key focus of the report, from 2022 to 2023 demand response participation in the seven US wholesale markets increased slightly by approximately 135MW, or 0.4%, to a total of 33,055MW.
Demand response totals increased in five of those wholesale markets but declined in two.
Approximately 6.5% of the wholesale market peak demand for all RTOs/ISOs could be met by demand response resources in 2023, the same rate as in 2022. The sum of the non-coincident peak demands across all RTOs/ISOs was approximately 512GW in 2023, compared to 507GW in 2022.
The report also notes that state regulators continue to consider and approve proposals to implement different types of time-varying rates and other opportunities to leverage flexible demand.
For example, regulators in Colorado, Maine and Minnesota are either actively evaluating, or have recently approved, retail time of use rates.
California recently issued flexible demand appliance standards for swimming pool controls, and the Colorado Commission issued an order approving a virtual power plant (VPP) pilot programme.
