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As the backbone of America’s economy, the electric power industry provides the energy that enables citizens and businesses to participate in global commerce. It also supports downstream sectors such as transportation, water, emergency services, telecommunications, and manufacturing. A reliable and affordable electric power supply is crucial for regular operations in today’s industrialized economies (Zhu & Lin, 2022). Despite this, the United States has witnessed an increase in large outages over the past two decades (Blunt, 2022), which can trigger failures that affect banking, communications, traffic, and security. Notably, the 2003 blackout affected an estimated 45 million people across eight states (U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force, 2004). In February 2021, the Texas power crisis led to shortages of water, food, and heat for over 4.5 million houses and businesses, causing widespread damage and loss of life (Doan, 2021; Svitek, 2022). These incidents underscore the importance of ensuring power grid resilience and reliability, particularly in extreme weather events and other challenges.
To enhance the reliability of the power grid, numerous utility companies in the United States have modernized their grid by integrating smart meters. These advanced devices can collect and transmit detailed energy consumption data at frequent intervals, often in near-real time. This capability enables utility companies to identify and address issues promptly. According to the Edison Foundation Institute for Electric Innovation (Cooper & Shuster, 2019), smart meters notify customers of power outages, provide estimated service restoration times, and send final notifications when power is restored. Companies such as Pacific Gas and Electric (2023), Southern California Edison (2023), and San Diego Gas and Electric (2023) have reported significant improvements in outage response times and reductions in outage durations since implementing smart meters (California Public Utilities Commission, 2023). Similarly, Consolidated Edison, Inc. in New York and Oncor Electric Delivery in Texas have reported comparable successes in managing outages and restoring services by using smart meters (Sunset Advisory Commission, 2022).
Several studies have examined the relationship between smart meter adoption and factors like energy efficiency, peak load demand, dynamic pricing programs, and carbon emissions (Corbett et al., 2018; Gao et al., 2023; Zhou, 2021). However, there is a lack of consistent empirical evidence on how smart meter implementation relates to power outage frequency or duration. This study addressed the gap, recognizing the importance of providing policymakers with information to establish standards to enhance power grid reliability and performance. Empirical findings on the relationship between smart meter adoption and power reliability offer valuable insights for grid modernization efforts and help assess policy effectiveness, that is, What effects does the policy have on the targeted problem? In addition, there is a gap in the literature regarding how the ownership type of an electric utility company influences the impact of its smart meter adoption in the power grid area. Different ownership types–cooperative, investor-owned, municipal, and political subdivisions–can have varying results in taking advantage of the grid modernization policy and hence varying impacts on the power grid system. This paper examined these four types to evaluate policy equity by asking, What are the effects of this policy on different groups? Addressing this research question is essential for assessing and diagnosing these policies to gain a comprehensive understanding of their impacts.