# State of the Art and Trends Review of _Smart Metering_ in Electricity Grids
## 4 Development of _Smart Metering_ Worldwide
### America
#### 4.2.1 The United States  
The largest driver of the rollout of _SM_s in the United States has been the _American Reinvestment and Recovery Act_ (_ARRA_) program. With the end of _ARRA_ funding, the installation of _SM_s is moving much more slowly than it did in 2009-2011 [46]. However, the deployment of _Smart Metering_ solutions is still increasing: the Institute for Electric Innovation reported a total of 50.1 million _SM_s installed in 2014, which implies a penetration rate of 36.3% [61]. Most of the installed _SM_s are for residential use (43% of U.S. homes have an _SM_), since many U.S. commercial customers have long had _SM_s to monitor  
Figure 6: Estimation of the total number of _SM_s installed in North America by 2020 (Source: Accenture [55]). Reprinted with the permission of Accenture, “Realizing the Full Potential of _Smart Metering_”, published by Accenture, 2015.  
facility electricity usage more accurately. Applied technologies vary from \(2G\) and \(3G\) for end-users and \(BB\)-\(PLC\) for _HANs_. The evolution of installed _SM_s in the last five years can be seen in Figure 7.  
By 2014, more than 43 million out of the 50.1 million _SM_s were installed by investor-owned utilities, while almost 7 million were installed by municipal and cooperative-owned utilities. Among the _Smart Metering_ systems performed by investor-owned utilities, 16 of them deployed more than 1 million _SM_s, according to a report published by the Institute for Electric Innovation [62]. The largest deployment was performed by Pacific Gas & Electric utility, with 5.14 million _SM_s equipped with _RF_ mesh technology in 2013 as part of its _SmartMeter_ Project. The main objectives of the deployment are: (i) customer service (customers with _SM_s can participate in a voluntary critical peak pricing rate plan that will help manage system load during hot summer days and receive notifications of when they are moving into higher-priced electricity tiers); (ii) demand response, focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energies; and (iii) setting a platform for future innovative solutions such as _HAN_ services and _EV_ appliances [63]. According to the project development report, the most challenging issue has been the coordination and integration with other enterprise initiatives that are part of the project [64]. Another large deployment started in 2007 and finished in 2012, consisting of almost 5 million installed _SM_s equipped with _ZigBee_, was performed in California under the _SmartConnect_ program by the Southern California Edison utility. At present, the project offers different tariff rates to consumers. Several appliances and services such as energy storage, distributed control, and artificial intelligence are currently being developed and are expected to be ready by 2020. Specifically, the key roles of _SM_s in this project are: (i) enabling customers to actively participate in grid operations; (ii) allowing maximum access by third parties to the electric grid; (iii) promoting demand response, energy efficiency, and _DG_ and _DS_ into energy markets; and (iv) lowering the carbon footprint of the electric distribution system. The project reported some disgruntled responses from customers regarding remote supply disconnections and magnetic radiation emissions from _SM_s [65]. Two more _SM_ deployments are over and above the 4 million installed _SM_s: the Florida Power and Light Company installed 4.6 million _RF_ mesh-based _SM_s as part of its _Smart Meter_ program to residential consumers in 2014. In addition to providing several services (such as monitoring their energy use by hour, day, and month as well as the energy they delivered to and received from the company) and reliable supply to customers, FPL plans involve the prediction and prevention of outages through the _SM_s and the deployment of monitors, sensors, and controls on their transmission and distribution grid [66]. On the other hand, the Southern  
Figure 7: Evolution of _SM_s installed in recent years in the U.S. [62].