NO! At least my company's residential smart meters don't. They store a reading every few hours, and continually update the peak reading. The stored readings are sent back through the network every few hours, and eventually get to the utility. Why every few hours? So they can bill you less if you use more electricity on off-peak hours. It saves you money.
On-demand reads are hard in a residential environment; there's just not enough bandwidth to route the request to a specific meter through the network efficiently. They are reserved for high-volume users, like factories and big-box stores, who have even more sophisticated electric meters than your smart meter, and a dedicated cell-phone link.
Do these meters allow the utility to turn a user’s power off remotely? (not just the ones you work on, but in general)
Yes. The meters my company manufactures, and our competitors, have models that include a built-in remote cutoff switch. If you think about it, this is a good thing. Your power gets turned back on very quickly after you pay your bill. No need to roll a truck; they just send the command to turn on meter ID#xxxxxxxxxxxx (your physical address does NOT go over the network), and in a few minutes (ever how long it takes for the request to propogate down the network), your power comes back on.
Of course, it is up to individual utilities to purchase or not purchase the cutoff option.
I feel it appropriate to add that any “smart meter” that can do more than a whole-house disconnect involves the power company coming in and doing things to the hookups of your appliances (primarily your A/C and your electric water heater).
This is a special deal you agree to with the power company in order to get better rates, and falls outside of the normal definition of “smart meter.”