I don’t think the power companies are so insistent on installing them because they are good for us. I’d rather ante up $60000 for solar power, rather than be tracked.
And controlled.
They never asked our permission when we built our house they just installed it. We were actually relieved when we figured it out because we have a gated driveway and don’ t like to have to worry about service people having access to the property.
Ahh OK but the only difference in a present day "Smart Meter" and a normal meter is now your usage is sent via signal to a digital recording device rather than someone physically walking up to your meter and reading the display and writing it down.
So the only real difference is that you are still tracked it just takes less manpower to do it. Which is going to reduce the need for the company to raise rates to pay for people who are doing a job a a tiny black box can do more efficiently.
You have to be realistic. Solar power does not work, at ANY cost. Even here in southern Texas, houses with these high cost panels and inverters still have to be connected to the grid. In Illinois, you would be lucky to have enough power to read an iPad at night, consistently. You would likely have to use bottled water to even take a cold bath.