So, is Eniscope a smart meter? No. Is it smart? Very smart. First, let’s look at some of the realities of so-called Smart Meters. You know, in the land of blind, the one-eyed man is king and this certainly applies to the situation with smart meters. In a world where energy is invisible, having partial sight of your consumption has to be better than nothing. However, contrary to popular belief, smart meters were not conceptualized for the benefit of the end-user. They were designed primarily for the benefit of the utility companies to put them in control of your energy consumption.
So, how do they benefit? Well, firstly, a smart meter enables them to read your meter remotely. Now that’s a huge cost-saving. Secondly, it helps them control demand – another cost-saving. Third, it allows them to cut you off remotely if you don’t pay; yet another huge cost-saving. And fourthly, it can be used to change your tariff remotely which helps maximize their revenue. Little wonder that smart meters are installed across the globe. You know, a select group of people are going to get very rich off the back of this rollout program. Yet, despite their clear gearing towards utility companies, smart meters are being marketed as a panacea for energy saving. But are smart meters really that smart? When it comes to energy management? Well, let’s look at the facts.
1. They’re not free. You may not get an invoice but you will pay in increased energy cost. The utility companies are not that generous.
2. The information is not real-time. It is provided in what’s called a “day+1” format which basically means energy you used today you find out about sometime tomorrow. Now, that’s better than the current situation of monthly or even quarterly bills but it’s still not real-time. You won’t be able to make changes and see an immediate effect. Now, some utility companies are trying to get around this by selling you a cheap energy monitor that will display limited real-time information. But because it will only measure one power value, the accuracy can be out by as much as 10%. So, you don’t know if you save 10% or if your meter is just reading incorrectly.
3. You still get only one meter. The information may come quicker but it still comes in one lump sum. Now, in a small house, this might be moderately useful but in the commercial or public building, there’s no way of isolating what it costs in various parts of the building or individual pieces of equipment which is essential for proper energy management.
4.They only measure one parameter – it’s kilowatt hours. Now while it’s useful, it only gives you one piece of the energy management puzzle. It’s like having a physical and the doctor only checks your pulse. Useful, but you might easily miss something important. You need to be aware of all the critical energy parameters like voltage, amps and power factor across all three phases if you want to know what’s really going on.
6.One size fits all. When you’re deploying millions of meters, you can’t stop to check the needs of the customer. You just want to install as many as possible as quickly as possible in any case. As we’ve seen, the real beneficiaries of the smart meter program are the utility companies themselves.

In contrast see the benefits of Eniscope in our previous blog, see below!

So then, how does this compare to Eniscope’s real-time energy management system?
1. You get a quick payback. Although savings will vary, we’ve had clients save up to 40% using our system and experience a payback in a matter of months. And if you buy on our Pay As You Save Program, your monthly savings can offset the cost of the equipment. From day one.
2. Real-time energy monitoring. Eniscope delivers information by the second so you can see exactly what is happening as it happens. Make a change and you’ll see the immediate effect and benefit. Plus, the information is delivered with precision, better than 1% accuracy which is more accurate than a standard revenue-grade meter.
3. It’s a complete system. Eniscope can be configured to measure all your critical energy points at the level most beneficial to you. That means you can measure buildings, floors, departments, rooms, circuits, even individual pieces of equipment. It’s all readily accessible via your favorite web browser on beautifully designed interfaces and in real-time. Plus, at the click of a button, you can view this granular energy information in our historical analytics portal which will help you to spot trends and anomalies, eliminate wastage and keep track of your improvements.
4. You have total power analysis. Eniscope can measure over 100 energy parameters and it comfortably measures, monitors and records the most critical power values including kilowatt hours, kilowatt demand, 3-phase amps, 3-phase voltage, apparent power, reactive power and power factor. It’s like our system performs a continuous health check on your building, explaining along the way what all of the values mean and what you can do to improve them or prevent a problem before it strikes.
5. We offer you custom configuration. The Eniscope system can be customized to meet your needs. We can collect and display information from other meters on your site like gas and water. We can setup alarms that will automatically turn your equipment off to save energy or avoid peak demand penalties. We can install real-time energy displays to help your building’s occupants make better decisions about how they use your energy. We can fit renewable energy displays to showcase alternative energy projects such as wind turbines or solar panels. We can even help you implement cutting edge load side energy saving products safe in the knowledge that everything we do is complete transparent because Eniscope is tracking the results in real-time.

So, try not to be totally taken in by the “smart meter” hype. Make no mistake, smart meters are here to stay but don’t let anyone blind you as to the real reason behind them. The benefits are stacked heavily in favor of the utilities companies. And while some users may derive limited benefits for the increased visibility of their energy consumption, which is a good thing, smart meters don’t replace good energy management and they can’t come close to the benefits of a real-time energy management system.

So, is Eniscope a smart meter? Absolutely not. Is it smart? There’s no doubt about it.