Different government agencies from all over the world are transforming their cities into smart cities. Because of the increasing pollution levels, the world environment is facing multiple challenges, and global warming is one of them. The main reason for this increase in temperature of the globe is the release of ever-increasing greenhouse gases. Burning the fossil fuels to meet the energy requirements is being considered as the primary reason for the global warming and the toxic elements in the air. To fight this global problem, a huge amount of funds has been allocated by all the developed and the developing countries in the recent past. In addition, most of the city planners are working towards attaining the dream of shifting towards 100% sustainable energy by 2020. With the new innovations, the smart meter is one of the efficient equipment that can help in the effective management of energy flow. As per the implementation plan, the smart cities will have all kind of connectivity features and to attain that, a lot of energy is needed. The best part about these smart cities is, all the energy will be collected from the renewable green energy sources. With the view of empowering the entire city with green energy, an effective management of energy is required to prevent the shortage of energy. In order to reduce the wastage of energy, the ‘smart meters’ can be used to keep a track of the energy utilization.
How can Smart Meters save energy?
The major point to ponder upon is, do these meters need to be connected throughout the day and how these small devices can save energy. These smart meters are equipped with smart energy management facility and can record the energy usage details of the user. As per the upcoming green energy project, most of the homes will be powered by renewable energy generation capability and the extra energy that is produced can be fed to the grid in order to make it a sustainable process. Here the smart meters come into play. The smart meters will help individual house owners to track their energy usage, and this will help them plan automatic power cut when electricity is not required. As per the smart meter designers, these smart meters can help an individual to save more than 40% of electricity and the involved expenditures.
How can electricity usage be controlled with accuracy?
By the use of smart meters, the electricity usage can be monitored and controlled in a precise manner. The smart meters are mated with the smart grids and based on the identified energy usage trend, smart meters can control the inflow of electricity from the grid. The smart meters are also equipped with the advanced connectivity features, which allow the users to monitor every small aspect of the consumption on their smartphones with the help of dedicated applications. These applications are advanced enough to deliver the data in real time. With such kind of highly advanced features smart grids and smart meter can be considered as the baseline for any city to be smart.
With the automation of these recording processes, the quality of analytics and way forward strategy planning has improved to an extensive level. Previously, a large number of human resources were being allocated to monitor the electric meters, and there was a huge chance of tracking error. Such errors in recording mostly led to wastage of huge amount of energy and sometimes even illegal use of generated energy. This automation not only helps the government to plan efficient management but also it helps the end user to save a good amount of bucks.
Smart Meters Can Reduce The Cost Of Electricity!
Recently, in the year 2017, a survey was conducted by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. As per the survey, the researchers have seen that the domestic electricity market consumes 23% of the total energy and the commercial market consumes 32% of the total energy. The main reason for the high price of electricity is the scarcity of good quality fossil fuel and the increasing demand for energy. Reducing the wastage, and using the resources carefully can help the power generation companies to fulfill the demand and supply gap easily and it will automatically decrease the price of electricity.
Smart meters easily reduces the wastage of electricity and hence manipulates the cost of electricity as well. As the majority of the electricity service providers are shifting towards the use of solar and wind energy to generate electricity, the produced energy is cleaner and cost-efficient. Also, during office hours the electricity consumption of household gets reduced, and the energy produced by the solar panels installed on the roofs of the houses can be fed instream. With this energy generation technique, the consumer acts as a producer of electricity and hence the cost of consumed energy can be minified and vice-versa. Having such an effective grid management in place, it can be claimed that smart meters can help reduce the price and wastage of electricity.
Use of Smart Meters for Energy Literacy
There is no doubt that the smart meters can help people to reduce their energy consumption and energy wastage. There is another benefit of this smart meter, and that is the increment in energy literacy. By the term energy literacy, we mean understanding the concept of energy consumption and efficient utilization of resources. In the recent time, most of the people were not aware of the importance of energy generation resources and unknowingly wasted the energy. With the introduction of smart meters in the domestic market, the easy to read and user-friendly interface help the user to understand the things quite fast. Also by looking at the advantages of electricity generation and the associated savings caters consumer interest to the next level. According to a recent survey, conducted by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has revealed that the use of smart meter has increased the energy literacy among people. As per the survey, 72% of smart meter users have taken at least one step to reduce their energy wastage. Also, the smart meter users have recommended other people to use smart meters. The smart meters can be a cost-effective solution, and the installation price can be regenerated within 4 years.
Smart Solution for Smart Cities
The modern day smart cities are fully equipped with giant screens and advanced LEDs for better visibility. All the important information about the city and advertisements are displayed on those digital posters. With such advancements, smart cities require a lot of energy, and that is why effective energy management is required. If the energy management process is not right, then a scarcity of energy may occur in the near future. The global population is moving towards green energy initiative, and the smart meters and grids can help the modern day population to reduce the wastage of the valuable resources.
Conclusion
Smart meters can be a great solution for every individual, who is willing to make this world a better place to live in. Prevention is better than cure, and the only way to fight the energy wastage problem is by optimizing the use of resources. Yet, the smart meters are not self-sufficient in nature. The main concept behind the creation of the smart city is connecting every aspect of life in a synchronized manner. The smart city planners work towards attaining the goals of this ever developing the technology-driven smart world.
