25. Emphasises the urgent need for new, modernised, smart and flexible energy infrastructure, especially smart grids, to allow for a more flexible back-up and balancing power capacity, including individual microgeneration and storage systems, new electricity uses (such as electric vehicles) and demand response programmes (including smart meters), and a fully integrated European grid system, inter alia, in order to integrate all sources of energy across the EU, as has been proven necessary; recalls that cost-optimal policies differ according to demand patterns, supply potential, geographic characteristics and economic contexts at the local level; stresses, moreover, the urgent need for the establishment of a stable and predictable regulato ...[+++]ry framework, as well as for EU-wide market mechanisms to boost flexibility, including capacity uptake and storage, and for EU co-financing of infrastructure projects of common interest that are in line with the Energy Infrastructure Guidelines and the Connecting Europe Facility;

26. Emphasises the urgent need for new, modernised, smart and flexible energy infrastructure, especially smart grids, to allow for a more flexible back-up and balancing power capacity, including individual microgeneration and storage systems, new electricity uses (such as electric vehicles) and demand response programmes (including smart meters), and a fully integrated European grid system, inter alia, in order to integrate all sources of energy across the EU, as has been proven necessary; recalls that cost-optimal policies differ according to demand patterns, supply potential, geographic characteristics and economic contexts at the local level; stresses, moreover, the urgent need for the establishment of a stable and predictable regulato ...[+++]ry framework, as well as for EU-wide market mechanisms to boost flexibility, including capacity uptake and storage, and for EU co-financing of infrastructure projects of common interest that are in line with the Energy Infrastructure Guidelines and the Connecting Europe Facility;

93. Believes that the rise in recent years of energy bills in the EU has developed a ‘smart’, common-sense-based approach to cut energy use through energy efficiency and energy savings; stresses the importance of accompanying this natural yet insufficient change in behaviour with the right policy actions, and with financial support, in order to enhance further energy savings; stresses the need for stimulating consumers to generate their own energy; stresses that the role of ICT and its implementation throughout smart grid networks is increasingly important for the development of efficient energy consumption and, in particular, for the ...[+++] development of demand response programmes (including smart meters), which should help consumers become active stakeholders in energy efficiency by providing them with easily understood, real-time data on energy consumption in households and businesses, and on the surplus that is fed back to the grid, as well as with information on energy efficiency measures and possibilities;

For electricity and gas meters, there is no change with regard to the inspection periods, except that Bill C-14 aims to increase the fines for faulty meters.

Smart meters will allow customers to see and react to higher prices typically found during peak hours of consumption, and utilities can use that data to offer load management and energy conservation programs to their customers to help offset rising prices and reduce greenhouse gases.

The issue is the $350 fee to the consumer to install a meter, after which the price of water would go up, and there is no supply problem for many of these smaller towns.