Part 1 of 2: What Smart Meters Are, Your Rights, and What It Means for Solar Customers
By Gregory Garrison, President — Northeast Solar Design Associates | February 2026
I write these posts because our neighbors deserve straight answers about our energy future — and because Northeast Solar is committed to keeping our energy dollars and energy decisions local, for the benefit of everyone in Western Massachusetts.
Here’s What Eversource Isn’t Telling You.
If you live anywhere in the Pioneer Valley served by Eversource, there’s a good chance a contractor in a vest has already knocked on your door to swap out your electric meter. No phone call ahead. No detailed explanation. Just a clipboard and 15 minutes.
They’re installing smart meters. Whether you’re excited about it, skeptical, or had no idea it was happening, this affects every homeowner in Western Massachusetts.
I’m not here to tell you smart meters are good or bad. I’m here to give you the facts: what these devices actually do, who’s installing them, what data they collect, what rights you have, and what it costs if you say no. Because Eversource isn’t going to explain the parts that matter most to you.
This is not a meter upgrade. It is a data-collecting computer bolted to the side of your house that also happens to measure electricity.
What Is a Smart Meter, Exactly?
Your current meter is an AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) device, likely installed in the early 2000s. Once a month, an Eversource truck drives past, picks up a one-way radio signal, and that single reading generates your bill. One reading. One month.
That’s all your utility knows about your electricity usage.
A smart meter — technically called AMI, Advanced Metering Infrastructure — is a different animal entirely. Eversource is deploying the Itron Gen5 Riva platform, and it does far more than measure kilowatt-hours.
It records your usage every 15 minutes. That’s 96 data points per day instead of one per month. Eversource can now see exactly when you use power, how much, and in what patterns.
It measures electricity flowing in both directions. If you have solar panels, the meter tracks every kilowatt-hour you send to the grid and every kilowatt-hour you pull from it. Critical for net metering customers.
It communicates continuously through a private wireless mesh network. No more monthly truck visits. The meter talks to Eversource in near-real-time through encrypted radio signals — not your home Wi-Fi.
It detects outages automatically. When your power drops, the meter sends a “last gasp” notification — a burst transmission from a built-in capacitor — before it loses power. Itron’s spec sheet lists a 25-second standard hold-up, with an extended 75-second mode that also relays outage signals from neighboring meters.
It runs apps. Seriously. The Gen5 Riva has an embedded edge computing platform that Itron describes as an “app store model, similar to a smart phone.” It processes and analyzes data in real time at the meter, and can load applications from multiple vendors. This is not your grandfather’s electric meter.
It can be remotely connected and disconnected. This is the feature nobody is talking about. Your new meter has a motorized relay inside it. Eversource can turn your power off and on without sending a truck or a technician. Just a command from headquarters.
That last one deserves to sit for a moment. We’ll come back to it.
This is not a meter upgrade. It is a data-collecting computer bolted to the side of your house that also happens to measure electricity.
Who’s at Your Door?
It’s not Eversource employees. The crews in the Pioneer Valley work for Grid One Solutions, headquartered in Aston, Pennsylvania. Grid One is part of UtiliCon Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asplundh — a privately held infrastructure company founded in 1928 with more than 34,000 service professionals across North America.
Their technicians should carry Grid One Solutions ID badges and drive clearly marked vehicles. If someone arrives to swap your meter without proper identification, do not let them touch it.
For National Grid customers, the installer is Utility Partners of America (UPA). UPA is also handling Unitil’s rollout.
Where Are We in the Rollout?
Eversource’s smart meter network went live on July 21, 2025. By January 2026, they’d installed 100,000 meters, hitting that milestone while working in Easthampton. Crews are now active in Northampton, Amherst, Hadley, and surrounding communities. Western Mass installations are expected to wrap up in the coming months before expanding east toward Boston and Worcester.
The full program: more than 1.5 million meters across 159 communities. Completion target: end of 2027. DPU-approved budget: $668 million, paid by ratepayers through a Grid Modernization Factor on your monthly bill. You’re already seeing roughly $1.75/month, potentially rising to around $5/month as the program ramps up.
You didn’t vote on it. But you’re paying for it.
Why Is Eversource Doing This?
The honest answer is that smart meters save Eversource money, and the math is substantial. Their own filings project $743 million in benefits against $620 million in costs over 20 years — a benefit-cost ratio of 1.2. The $668 million Massachusetts budget follows the same logic.
Where do those benefits come from? Eliminating the meter-reading fleet — what Eversource’s own director called an “army of vehicles” driving routes monthly — saves fuel, labor, and maintenance. Remote connect and disconnect eliminates truck rolls for move-ins, move-outs, and non-payment. Tamper alerts catch energy theft. Better billing data ends the disputes from estimated monthly reads.
But the biggest driver is time-of-use rate enablement. Smart meters are the prerequisite for TOU pricing, and the DPU’s investigation (D.P.U. 25-200) explicitly links the AMI deployment to a transition away from flat rates. You cannot have TOU without 15-minute interval data. That is what they are now collecting, from every house in the state.
Most of the financial benefits flow to Eversource. The entire $668 million cost flows to you.
What Data Does Your Smart Meter Actually Send?
Based on Eversource’s own FAQ and the Itron Gen5 Riva specification sheet, your meter transmits: energy consumption in 15-minute intervals, voltage and power quality data (down to per-second measurements), outage notifications, tamper alerts, and directional power flow data for solar customers.
Eversource states the meter transmits only its serial number and usage data — not your name, address, or personal information. That is technically accurate. Your personal info lives separately in their billing database.
But here’s what privacy researchers have documented: 15-minute interval data is detailed enough to allow what’s called load disaggregation — inferring what appliances you’re running, when you’re home, when you’re sleeping, and what your daily routine looks like. The Congressional Research Service has described granular smart meter data as offering a window into the lives of people inside the home.
Whether Eversource’s data security is sufficient protection is a question only you can answer. But you should be asking it with full information.
What About Health Concerns?
I’m going to give you both sides and let you decide.
The official position: The FCC says smart meters comply with maximum permissible exposure limits, well below the threshold for thermal effects. Eversource’s director of smart meter operations confirmed that emission levels fall above a television set and below a cell phone. At three feet from the meter, RF levels drop to near-background.
The other side: The WHO classifies RF radiation as a Group 2B possible carcinogen. Critics argue that FCC standards address only thermal effects and that non-thermal biological effects haven’t been adequately studied.
I’m a solar installer, not a doctor. I can give you the data — I’m not qualified to tell you what to do with it. If this concerns you, that’s exactly what the 90-day opt-out window is for.
For many homeowners, the numbers make the smart meter the better financial decision even with concerns about privacy or health.
Can You Say No? Your Opt-Out Rights
Yes. Residential customers can opt out. But the process matters and there is a real financial cost.
Eversource is required to send a 90-day advance notification letter before installing your smart meter. Opt out within that 90-day window and the one-time $42 fee is waived — a concession announced in October 2025 after public backlash. Miss the window and the $42 applies if you want a swap-back.
The ongoing cost: $34 per month for manual meter reading. That’s $408 per year, every year, for as long as you opt out. Over 10 years, that’s more than $4,000.
One thing most people don’t realize: opting out does not mean keeping your old analog meter. That meter is 20-plus years old and going away regardless. You’d receive a new non-communicating digital meter instead.
For many homeowners, the numbers make the smart meter the better financial decision even with concerns about privacy or health. But that calculation is yours to make. Just make sure you make it before the 90-day window closes.
National Grid customers face a $26 per month opt-out fee ($312/year), even if you submit your own readings. National Grid says they’re required to verify readings every other month regardless.
Unitil customers with solar face a different situation entirely: they cannot opt out at all. If you’re a Unitil net metering customer, a smart meter is required for your net metering service. No exceptions. This is worth watching. If Eversource or National Grid adopt a similar requirement, opting out may not be an option for solar customers regardless of utility.
Two bills are before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy: S.2306 (Senators Moore and Fattman) would eliminate all opt-out fees. H.3551 (Rep. Reyes) would require written consent before any installation and give ratepayers a free choice of meter type. Neither has moved to a vote. Do not count on either passing before the meter truck shows up at your house.
Why Solar Customers Need to Pay Attention Right Now
This is where the smart meter story connects to something much bigger.
Smart meters are the technology that makes time-of-use rates possible. Under TOU pricing, electricity costs more during peak hours and less off-peak. The DPU is actively investigating this shift through D.P.U. 25-200, which also examines potential restructuring of net metering credits. In plain terms: the data these meters collect gives regulators the infrastructure to change how solar customers get compensated for the power they send back to the grid.
If you’re already interconnected as a net metering customer, you’re grandfathered under the current rules. If you’ve been thinking about going solar, the window to lock in favorable terms is open today. We don’t know exactly when the DPU will act, but the meters are going in now, and the regulatory machinery is already moving.
And that remote disconnect capability? If your utility can flip a switch and cut power to your house without sending a truck, having your own generation and storage isn’t just about saving money. A properly designed solar and battery system keeps your lights on regardless of what Eversource does with that remote switch. Under TOU rates, battery storage also becomes a genuine money-saving tool — not just a backup.
What to Do Right Now
Watch for your 90-day notification letter. That is your window. Act within it if you want to avoid the $42 opt-out fee.
If you have solar, log into your Eversource account and access your 15-minute interval data. It’s genuinely useful for understanding your system’s performance.
If you’re considering solar, do not wait for the regulatory picture to fully clarify. By the time the DPU finalizes new net metering rules, the grandfathering window may be closed.
Seriously consider battery storage. Between TOU rates on the horizon and remote disconnect capability already installed, pairing solar with storage is increasingly the smart play for Western Massachusetts homeowners.
Want to learn more about locking in your energy rates now?
Call us at (413) 247-6045 or schedule your free solar assessment.
Part 2 of this series will cover exactly how time-of-use rates change the financial model for solar, what the DPU investigation means in practical terms, and how to position your home’s energy system for what’s coming.
Related: The DPU Just Opened an Investigation Into Net Metering — Here’s What’s at Stake
