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What are the major challenges facing electric utilities as they roll out smart meters? Jessica Baker of Baltimore Gas & Electric and Shanu Nigam of Accenture (News - Alert) compiled a top 10 list of metering challenges. By way of background, Baker has worked as a smart grid business architect and as smart meter installation project manager at BGE and Nigam is a senior manager of the Smart Energy Practice at Accenture where he has worked with numerous utilities on smart meters, smart grid data management, smart grid cyber security and other important initiatives.

The deployment challenges that made their top 10 list are the ones you never hear about in strategic, theoretical discussions – but that rise up and smack you in the face when you get into actual deployment. Some of the most intriguing lessons from metering deployments come on the project management side – for instance, how to work with installers and head-end providers. Budgeting issues also rank high on their list. As an example, the two caution that utilities will be urged to spend on customer awareness before deployment begins. The goal is to avoid customer misinformation and pushback. But they say it's also important to reserve enough budget for customer education and engagement after deployment when utilities need to encourage behavior changes that lead to more energy efficiency.

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