Nope, smartmeters are primarily about taxation. It is about increasing the revenue to local governments while state governments swallow up their traditional source of income. Since 'The People' are starting to get ticked off about other revenue streams (see red light cameras, speed cameras, right turn cameras, huge traffic fines, etc...) and are less willing to cough up more dough (see failures at the ballot box), the goal is to increase the revenue going to local city coffers by making it far easier to target businesses with utility tax hikes.
As for residentials, home schoolers and work at homes honestly are a drop in the bucket when you compare them to the percentage of elderly who are at home throughout the day who are using air conditioning for their comfort. While programs will 'help' them somewhat on the bills, they'd much rather force them out of their homes during the day and into senior community centers - another great way of skimming money into the city budget.
As it stands now, a person who is inclined to enterprise should be thinking about selling battery packs that recharge at night during the low rate times, and release their power during the high rate times of the day. You've both residential and the soon to be hard targetted commercial customers to go after, and the technical challenges shouldn't be that great.
(smacks forehead)
WOW! Why didn't the entire electric utility and meter industry think of that, after 130 years? YOU'RE a freaking GENIUS! We should just "release the power" at the right time of day! Dayum! And the "technical challenges shouldn't be too great." (smacks forehead)
Your ignorance is what is great.
You can't store and "release" power like that. Utilities use AC. Batteries store DC. Conversion is inefficient, and COSTS MONEY. Nobody is going to make money like this. Extra generating capacity has to be brought online during peak time. That's why the whole infrastructure of the "smart grid" is being pushed.
Now, if you want to convert all the lights in your home to DC, and run them off batteries (I have in my ham radio room), now you can store some power. But you STILL have convert AC to DC (rectification), in which process you lose energy. And you gotta replace your batteries after 5 years. Or, keep them climate-controlled (Edison storage batteries).
This thread is the gift of ignorance that just keeps on giving.