Exploring Smart Meters: What We Know and WhatWe Need to Know

Implementation of smart meters is revolutionizing traditional energy grids, promoting energy efficiency, and enabling two-way communication between energy suppliers and consumers. This paper presents a scoping review of smart meters investigating functional and non-functional expectations, benefits, drawbacks, and factors influencing implementation of smart meters. The study aims at providing an overview of existing research in this area and identify gaps and limitations in literature, especially in between smart meter literature and how consumers perceive smart meters. Through a scoping review process, 16 articles were selected for analysis. The findings highlight the importance of real-time information, remote monitoring, accuracy, privacy, and security in smart meter functionality. The benefits encompass improved customer awareness, energy efficiency, and grid stability, while the drawbacks include privacy concerns and limitations in current standards. Factors influencing adoption include cost-benefit analysis, regulatory policies, consumer awareness, and technical considerations. The study reveals research gaps related to long-term performance, social and psychological factors, diverse consumer segments, privacy and data security, economic viability, regional contexts, and stakeholder dynamics. Addressing these gaps will contribute to maximizing benefits of smart meters, informing policymakers, utility companies, and researchers for effective strategies in energy management and sustainability. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and underscores the need to understand consumers' perspectives on smart meters.