Electricity Metering Today and Tomorrow

In this world of wireless, web-enabled digital devices there remain a few aspects of our lives that haven't yet caught up with the times. One of these holdouts is our electricity metering. The most common type of meter in the U.S. is called an electromechanical induction or Thomson meter. It was invented in 1888 by Elihu Thomson.

Imagine this: Instead of every house having an electricity meter with a tiny digital display or little dials moving imperceptibly around and around, the utility companies instead put a jar with two zinc plates immersed in zinc sulfate connected across a shunt in each home circuit. Are you with me? I didn't think so.

In my world of zinc plates in a jar, current flowing through the jar causes metal to dissolve off of the positive plate and deposit onto the negative plate. Every month, the power company could weigh each plate and bill customers based on the change. Bills might be tougher to dispute if the evidence of consumption were dependent on something so physically observable rather than some crazy contraption like the Thomson meter. Right?

In reality, the zinc plate scheme was Thomas Edison's. It was used for the first power bills, sent out only 5 years before the invention of the Thomson meter. So, there was the first power bill in 1883, followed by another metering innovation in 1888, then 120 years of very little progress.

In my opinion, the lack of progress is due in part to incentives. The utility companies historically have lacked a compelling incentive to update their metering technology. With energy shortages looming, this may change. But why wait? We, as consumers, can embrace technology and monitor our own consumption more effectively today... or least in the very near future. That's what we're working on every day at VisibleEnergy -- giving consumers real-time feedback on their energy consumption so that they can live more sustainable and informed lives.