3 Feb 2026

A Systematic Review of Literature Utilizing Residential Smart Meter Data

Abstract: The global transition from traditional to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) has led to an exponential increase in residential electricity consumption data collected through smart meters. Research themes and methodologies developed to analyze these data are driven largely by characteristics of smart meter datasets, such as the temporal resolution of data, the spatial and temporal extent of the dataset, and number of households included. However, these trends in the smart meter literature have not been comprehensively reviewed. Here, we present a systematic review of 268 studies analyzing smart meter data, published up to May 1, 2024, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. Our findings reveal that cur-rent research is heavily reliant on a few open datasets, predominantly from high-income countries (e.g., the Customer Behavior Trials in Ireland and Low Carbon London in the UK), with approximately 90 % of studies utilizing data from developed countries. Although existing research highlights the potential of smart meter data to support a more sustainable and reliable electricity grid, especially in the face of rising demand and climate change, limited access to diverse data sources has constrained the inclusion of different geographic, climatic, and cultural contexts. Broader access to smart meter datasets is essential to expand research scope and generate insights applicable across different geographic and socio-economic settings; however, wider access also needs to be accompanied by well-designed privacy protections.