Angelika Michael has indeed in Rundbrief 11/2009 reported on the somewhat medieval methods still being used to read electricity meters in San Francisco. However, modernization is already in full swing, as so-called "Smart Meters" are gradually replacing them not only in San Francisco but throughout California.
The new digital meters measure electricity and gas consumption, and the data is then wirelessly transmitted to the gas and electricity companies (which is PG&E in San Francisco). The customer can then monitor their current electricity usage at any time on the home computer, as the consumption is read out hourly. PG&E hopes to encourage customers to adjust their consumption in the long run, enticed by variable, time-of-day-based pricing.
Interestingly, the "Smart Meters" don't seem to be as smart as their name suggests. Some customers who already have a new digital meter are complaining that their electricity and gas bills have suddenly increased dramatically (for some customers by several hundred dollars). However, PG&E claims that it's not due to the meters, but perhaps due to the lack of intelligence of the customers. Upon reviewing the high bills, it was sometimes found that some customers hadn't even installed the new meter yet, or the higher bill was due to penalty fees for unpaid bills. In any case, independent experts are now supposed to test the meters. A website summarizes the complaintsfrom the customers' perspective.Michael By the way, recently all sorts of gadgets have been popping up interms of electricity consumption measurement: Google has released thehttp://www.google.org/powermeter and The Energy Detective from another company displays the current electricity consumption of the entire household on the living room table. This way, the master of the house immediately knows if a housemate is carelessly wasting electricity again!