The market for retrofitting mechanical meters with optical sensors to give smart functionality is growing.
In December 2014, Metering.com reported that US utility Hawaiian Electric is trialling a retrofit real-time energy monitoring tool that fits onto a standard analogue meter.
The state’s largest utility plans to fit about 80 PowerCost Monitors, made by Blue Line Innovations, which use an optical sensor to provide real-time data through the cloud to homeowners.
Gene Wang, chairman and CEO of People Power, which provides the cloud technology, said: “The [PowerCost Monitor] slides over your regular meter, [and it] either reads that spinning disk or it reads the pulse, then transmits the information into our cloud and back to our Presence Pro Energy Application.”