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There are advanced consumer driven products and benefits based around information received from the smart meters wireless chip. This wireless chip "Zigbee SE" can communicate realtime information to other "Zigbee" enabled devices (there are many currenty used in the home automation industry) which will lead the energy retailers into true consumer driven time of use programmes. For instance during a demand response event that the consumer has "opted In" with, the heat pump may be able to pulse to a 2 degree setback, hot water turned off for a set period, fridge turned off for a set period,& lights dimmed by 20%. With accurate devices that are constantly polling the home environment, it is easy to achieve a solution that gives all parties what they want while leaving the ultimate control still with the consumer (avoiding big brother)!

This technology has been available and deployed in NZ for 5 years now. The barrier to market has been cost and a device that is engaging enough to the consumer that it becomes more than just an energy saving, energy conservation device.

The i-phone is a good example of a device that performs an ever widening amount of functions (enabled by unlimited software applications)that are cool enough to keep the consumer as an active participant.

Check out Control4's EMS-100 solution and it will become very apparent that there is much to be gained by all when the smart "Zigbee" chip is added to the meters.

www.control4.com/energy

The meters installed currently by Genesis are the dumbed down versions of widely used overseas models. dumbed down because they lack avery very cheap chip that allows for measurement of power delivered to the grid by micro-generation (say you have a wind turbine in your back yard.)
dumb because they do not deliver meaningful data to the householder (and certainly Genesis are not reporting any extra info or usage graphs to the consumer. And dumb because Genesis had to be forced to install a "smart meter" in the face of a meter reader who couldn't read the meter accurately, nor remove dirty shoes before entering the house. But especially dumb given that it could have been a unit serving multiple addresses, on the pole outside at point of supply (with no need for an electrician to enter ones house to install. and yes there is no way of using the smart meter to analyse ones usage as it is all but impossible to read.
However, the usage as read by the meter company does seem to have gone down, so I guess the old meter was on it's last legs anyhow. It is a pity Genesis chose to go with the cheaper option when for another AUS$3 they could have future proofed (to some extent), and for an additional AUS$12 delivered state of the art.
It is certainly weird to need to look at the overseas bargain basement models manual to learn how to read ones new smart meter, and then needing to ignore most of the features described because the NZ variant (for which no manual is available) lacks most features described in the nearest equivalent overseas model. Yes NZ situation is unique: companies here have next to no vision, and no incentive to deliver the best option, rather preferring to take the profits offshore, and deliver massive boardroom bonuses.

It is more the pity that Consumer.org failed once agin to deliver any significant detail in their report, regarding models, options, pricing, and international standards vs locally supplied options.