A 'smart meter' is an electrical meter with an in-built internet connection for transmitting and receiving data.
From the customer's perspective, the benefits of installing a smart meter include:
- being able to access time-of-use electrical pricing,
- being able to view your own usage data on a near-live basis,
- not having to provide property access for manual meter reads, and
- receiving faster and better customer service.
This is because smart meters have many capabilities that basic meters do not, including but not limited to being able to:
- time when you use electricity,
- automatically transmit electrical usage data,
- remotely receive instructions, and
- program the operation of certain appliances.
Note that there are still some similar meters out there called 'manually read interval meters.' These meters can measure the time intervals within which you use electricity, but must still be read by manual meter readers because they lack the ability to communicate data.