Survey of technologies and cost estimates for residential electricity services

This survey contains a sample of the available technologies for implementing residential electricity services. Brief overviews of several products, along with estimates for their costs are presented. The primary focus is on two services: automated meter reading (AMR), and load management. Cost estimates for other services, including real time pricing, remote connect/disconnect, and automated billing are not separately listed since many of these services are included with AMR and load management systems. This is not a comprehensive review of all available technologies or manufacturers, but is intended to provide a general understanding of the potential for implementation of residential services. The estimation of the costs associated with implementing these technologies should be treated as a general baseline, since actual costs will vary greatly. The lack of a mature market for these products allows for great variances in implementation costs, depending upon implementation sizes, contract lengths, and negotiations and relationships with suppliers. The residential services surveyed here can be implemented by any electricity service provider (ESP), which includes utilities and electricity retailers.