The U.S. Federal government announced that more than five million smart meters have been installed nationwide as part of Recovery Act-funded efforts to enhance modernization of the nation's electric grid.

Smart meters are expected to offer greater information about how much electricity is being used throughout their service areas. They will also give consumers access to real-time information about their energy consumption. Consumers can make well-informed decisions about how they use their electricity.

“To compete in the global economy, we need a modern electricity grid. An upgraded electricity grid will give consumers choices and promote energy savings, increase energy efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy resources,” said U.S. Department of Energy secretary Steven Chu, in a statement.

The federal government is leveraging smart meters to transform the nation's current electric grid into a smarter system. Smart meters will improve the reliability and security of the grid. It will also allow for the integration of renewable energy sources and help prevent blackouts and restore power more quickly when outages occur.

Utilities have installed nearly 90 percent of the meters to date in Florida, Texas, California, Idaho, Arizona, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Nevada.

The new installations are aimed at reducing peak loads, overall electricity use, and operations and maintenance costs while increasing distribution system reliability. As of April 30, 2011, as many as 1.3 million smart meters have been installed.

The Department of Energy plans to create a data map that will allow consumers to contribute information about the data on their electricity use.

The energy department will work over the summer with utilities, consumer groups, state and local officials, other stakeholders and the public to design the website that will launch in the fall.

While the U.S. is accelerating smart meter deployments, analyst firm Berg Insight announced recently that the number of smart electricity meters in Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.9 percent between 2009 and 2015 to reach 111.4 million at the end of the period.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell