The term Smart Meter often refers to an electricity meter, but it also may mean a device measuring natural gas or water consumption.
Similar meters, usually referred to as interval or time-of-use meters, have existed for years, but "Smart Meters" usually involve real-time or near real-time sensors, power outage notification, and power quality monitoring. These additional features are more than simple automated meter reading (AMR). They are similar in many respects to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters. Interval and time-of-use meters historically have been installed to measure commercial and industrial customers, but may not have automatic reading.
Research[which?] by the UK consumer group, showed that as many as one in three confuse smart meters with energy monitors, also known as in-home display monitors.[8] The roll-out of smart meters is claimed to be one strategy for saving energy. While energy suppliers in the UK could save around £300 million a year from their introduction, benefits to users of electricity depends on their using the information to change their pattern of energy use. For example, smart meters may facilitate taking advantage of lower off-peak time tariffs, and selling electricity back to the grid with net metering.[citation needed]
The installed base of smart meters in Europe at the end of 2008 was about 39 million units, according to analyst firm Berg Insight.[9] Globally, Pike Research found that smart meter shipments were 17.4 million units for the first quarter of 2011.[10] Visiongain determined that the value of the global smart meter market would reach US$7 billion in 2012.[11]
Smart meters may be part of a smart grid, but do not themselves constitute a smart grid.[12]