When talking about energy and power generation today, it’s hard to avoid the topic of smart grids and intelligent metering systems. But the subject can seem somewhat nebulous and perhaps idealistic without hard numbers that put things in perspective. That is exactly what the US Energy Information Administration does.

The EIA maintains granular smart meter data that includes the total number of installations, who has them and more. At the end of 2010, 663 utilities had over 20 million advanced metering infrastructure installations, which accounts for about 6% of the total current US population. The lion’s share of these installations are at the residential level.

With numerous utilities throughout the country working on smart meter roll out programs, the number of smart of meter installations could significantly increase in coming years.