Do these smart meters have any ability to communicate rates so that other devices can make decisions about when to operate?
I think some systems do, for example if you participate in the "Virtual Power Plant" scheme, which I don't.
My inverter/battery system is "aware" of pricing, but those are settings I manually enter. They are used for statistical purposes only and have no bearing on where the energy comes from or how it's consumed. I do have some other manual settings which I've configured, so basically my system is set up as follows:
1. As the sun starts to come up and the PV starts generating, the load increasingly shifts off the grid and over to PV.
2. When the PV is generating excess energy, it all goes to charging the battery (which will have depleted from the day before), at a rate of up to 2.2kW. Any additional excess beyond 2.2kW goes out to the grid and is paid back to me at 7c/kWh.
3. When the battery is full, it switches to standby mode. All excess from the PV that I'm not currently consuming continues being fed back out to the grid. (It's at this time I typically set things like the dishwasher and washing machine to start their cycle).
4. If by 1300hrs, the battery isn't fully charged (e.g.: on a cloudy day), it will switch to grid charging until 1600hrs. This fully charges the battery at my off-peak rate of 16.73c/kWh.
5. At 1600hrs, the peak rate tariff (20.97c/kWh April to November, or 30.70c/kWh between November and April) kicks in, at which point so does the battery. All (or most) energy at this point will come from a mixture of PV and battery (depending on the time of year).
6. When the PV array is no longer generating anything, the battery will take up the entire household load, up to 3kW. Any usage in excess of that will come from the grid.
7. At 2000hrs, the tariff switches back to off-peak. If the battery still has any charge remaining, it will continue to discharge until "empty" (~10% SoC). The remaining usage for the day is from the grid. Rinse and repeat the following day.
I've found that if I don't use the high-power devices (air conditioning, wall oven) for long periods during the peak time, all of my grid energy requirements are shifted to off-peak times.