Power company regulations allow for some estimation on a handful of meters, but not that much.
Consumers (retail and commercial) are also entitled to contest their bills so if there is no data then there is no proof.
There are also severe penalties to providers for not uploading their data to the market. For example, a small customer (power company) is penalized $250k per hour for data missing.
How will the power company know how much power they need to purchase from the market if they do not know what their demand is or how it is tracking.
Etc. etc. etc.
EDIT: By “regulations” I meant government regulations.
Power company regulations allow for some estimation on a handful of meters, but not that much.
Consumers (retail and commercial) are also entitled to contest their bills so if there is no data then there is no proof.
There are also severe penalties to providers for not uploading their data to the market. For example, a small customer (power company) is penalized $250k per hour for data missing.
How will the power company know how much power they need to purchase from the market if they do not know what their demand is or how it is tracking.
Etc. etc. etc.
EDIT: By “regulations” I meant government regulations.