MTDC installed four power meters and evaluated their performance for more than a year. The reporting software for the EIG meters was installed on two desktop computers. The reporting software for the Schneider Electric meters was installed on one computer.

EIG's "Communicator EXT" software is licensed per computer. One computer can monitor all the EIG meters it can access over the network.

The "Communicator EXT" software allows users to view any or all of the data retrieved from the meter. This allows activity to be viewed for specific hours or days from files including several months of data.

While a "Communicator EXT Lite" software package is available free from EIG, the free version does not allow meters to be configured remotely or reports to be generated. The free version does provide snapshots of current activity and allows voltage and current waveforms to be viewed for the circuits being monitored.

Schneider Electric's "PowerLogic ION Enterprise" software is licensed for the number of meters that will be monitored. Rather than having application software installed on each computer that monitors the meters, ION Enterprise software is installed on a server. Any computer with access to the server can use a Web browser to log into the application and access reports for any or all meters.