Southern California Edison opens its smart meter exhibit in Irwindale

The Jetsons would feel right at home in a pad like this, with its Coda electric vehicle hooked up in the garage and sleek energy-efficient appliances.

“This is the home of the future,” said Ted Craver Jr., chief executive of Edison International, which set up the Irwindale space and owns the Southern California Edison utility. “This is the way these things will work.”

Except he’s not talking about a real home. Instead, the suite of rooms at the company’s technology center were designed to demonstrate how appliances can interact with a smart meter.

The Smart Energy Experience exhibit officially opened Tuesday and shows how meters can help consumers monitor real-time fluctuations in energy use and cost as appliances are turned on and off. The idea is that with a better sense of their electricity consumption, homeowners can help save power and prevent power outages.

The layout is “a little Disneyland-esque,” Craver said. The laundry room has a programmable washer and dryer that “look space-age and beyond my pay grade,” he said.

So far, Southern California Edison has installed more than a million meters in customer homes. The utility expects to have 5 million in place by the end of 2012.

— Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Ted Craver Jr. talks with U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) at the opening. Credit: Edison International.