All of this information will be transmitted to consumers by so-called "smart meters," which are under consideration by electric utilities and state regulators to replace traditional meters.

"It will change the way they control their energy usage," said Martin Insogna, a consumer specialist with the state Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities.

Insogna and others spoke Thursday at a smart metering conference and technology expo in Albany organized by the New York Independent System Operator, an East Greenbush nonprofit that oversees the state's electric grid and wholesale power market.

Smart metering is coming to New York state, although it is not clear exactly when. Two years ago, the PSC asked utilities around the state to develop plans to deploy smart meters to consumers. That review process is still ongoing.

Smart metering is already used in Ontario, Canada. The government there has mandated that every home and business have smart meters by 2010.

Insogna and other speakers said the real challenge for the Empire State is picking the right smart meter technology so consumers use it and find value in it.

After all, although utilities would deploy smart meters, some or all of the costs would be passed to consumers. All of those details have yet to be determined in New York.

"If customers don't participate, you're going to have technology that isn't used," said Tom Brunetto, managing partner with Distributed Energy Financial Group LLC in Washington, D.C., who showed the crowd a movie about what life would be like with smart meters in the year 2015.

"The change that you saw there (in the movie) isn't cheap," he said. "There are risks involved."

A smart meter will send real-time information to both the utility and the consumer.

The utility will get automated readings on a household's electrical usage -- likely getting rid of the need for meter readers.

Conversely, consumers will get instant information on the real-time costs of the electricity they are using.

After all, the price of electricity fluctuates throughout the day, depending on the demand. On hotter days, for instance, the price goes up; in the middle of the night, when usage is low, the price typically goes down.

Sophisticated smart meters will even tell consumers which appliances are using the most power.

This information will be conveyed through a display located inside the home. In the future, the information could be transmitted online right to a computer screen at home or work.

One of the companies involved right now in making these displays is Aztech Associates Inc. of Kingston, Ontario.
 
Paul Muysson, vice president of operations for the company, said Ontario has been a big market for the company because 1.5 million smart meters have been installed in the province, with between 10,000 and 20,000 being installed each week.
He says a separate company makes the smart meters, but more often they are being installed together with their product.

"Increasingly, utilities are asking the meter companies for a total package," he said.

Oversight groups like the NYISO are also interested in smart metering as a way to help the state conserve and manage electricity.

New York state currently has enough power generation to supply the state's needs, but NYISO is forecasting the need for more power plants to be built in the state to supply the ever-increasing demand for power, especially in the New York City area.

By giving people more information, they will likely use less energy, taking pressure off the grid, said Karen Antion, chairwoman of the NYISO board of directors.

"As consumers can participate in the decision-making, it will allow us to balance the load better," she said.

Smart metering will also help the state with its ambitious 15-by-15 goal, first proposed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer to reduce energy consumption in New York by 15 percent by the year 2015. The PSC is currently asking utilities to form their own plans to help the state reach that target, and Gov. David Paterson is also embracing the policy.

That lofty goal helps answer the question of whether New York should implement smart metering now or later, said Aaron Breidenbaugh, a government affairs official with EnerNOC Inc., an energy management company in Boston.

"Given 15-by-15, the answer can only be now," Breidenbaugh said.

Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.