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From this morning’s Honolulu Advertiser: Hawaiian Electric is shifting its attention away from BPL (broadband Internet over power lines) to a more specific project: smart electric meters.

The testing site is appropriate: 3000 homes in the Ocean Pointe subdivision of Ewa Beach (Google map). Smart meters can do meter readings on their own, saving HECO employees from navigating Ewa’s ridiculous traffic snarl. These meters can also provide real-time monitoring of line quality and service issues. These features, if properly integrated with HECO’s monitoring systems and implemented throughout the island, might give HECO much better information during peak loads and disasters.

BPL delivers the Internet through electrical outlets

BPL provides Internet connectivity through existing power lines. Consumers could rent or purchase a BPL modem, plug it into an AC outlet, and get a broadband connection. For mainland US electric utilities, BPL is a rare opportunity to improve operating efficiency and create new businesses that relate directly to their core services. BPL Today claims the BPL market could be a US$200M industry. There are growing indications that BPL will be a key success factor (KSF) for the US electric utility industry within the next 5 years.

If HECO had been successful with a BPL consumer Internet service, the company could have been a formidable competitive rival to Time Warner Oceanic and Hawaiian Telcom in the Oahu broadband market. My June 7th post discussed how the TimeWarner-HawTel rivalry is focusing on basic issues like service speed.

HECO’s change in plans isn’t a big surprise. They were testing BPL Internet service with a dozen customers in the McCully area, so suspending that project only affected a few customers. BPL implementations in the US are usually expensive affairs, but the large number of multiresident buildings on Oahu might give HECO a chance to roll out BPL without restructuring their electrical distrbution system or buying extra repeaters.

CrunchGear and Reuters reported on May 15 that DirecTV is considering a BPL pilot project in a large mainland US city, and rolling out a WiMax service.