LONDON, Jan. 19 London-based research analysts Datamonitor released a study suggesting automated meter reading technology may not be market ready yet.In the future of liberalized markets across Europe, it becomes difficult to ascertain which player in the value chain will be prepared to swallow the huge investment needed for large scale AMR rollouts without further regulatory or government intervention of one sort or another, said David Hiller, energy and utilities managing consultant for Datamonitor. In Europe AMR technology is being installed largely due to investor friendly regulations. The Datamonitor study reported slow and meager paybacks are stalling companies from investing.Italian electricity supplier Enel rolled out 30 million new meters in Italy but it received $1.4 billion from the government in reimbursements to cover their losses, Hiller said. In the last three years, Enel's was the largest AMR rollout. The only other country to expand its AMR technology was Sweden, which installed the meters but on a smaller scale.AMR consists of several technologies encompassing the meter at the customers' home and the device for communicating the information between the meter and the utility.Consumers who have AMR installed will be able to see in real time how much their electricity is costing them and proponents claim this will motivate them to either use less electricity or use it during off peak times when it's less expensive.Copyright 2007 by UPI
