Two reports from the US have highlighted tensions between smart meters and battery storage, where utility smart meter installations are slowing while the cost of battery storage is plummeting. This could be a looming problem, as storage and distributed energy resources (DER) need these smart meters to cooperate. First, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) thinks there could be 90mn smart meters in the US by 2020, up from 70.8mn installed in 2016. That’s a penetration rate of 46.8%, given that there are some 151.3mn total meters in the country. However, the installation rate for the smart meters seems to be slowing, according to FERC’s findings, and it points to two recent legal blows to utilities that saw states reject…