The Swedish energy companies have several different systems for data collection of the energy consumption of their clients. Often computerized remote meter readers are put in practice in order to register the energy consumption of large companies. The majority of household clients, however, are read off by the assistance of manual methods. Household power consumption is read off once a year. As a result, these clients are not debited for their actual consumption; their invoices during the year are the result of estimations. At times when the electricity supply system is highly loaded, electricity is more expensive. Nevertheless all clients are billed with an average price. Many clients are dissatisfied with this situation. A large number of clients find it difficult to understand their invoices and demand them to be made easier to understand and to contain a specification of actual energy consumption. The Swedish Gov. wants energy companies to decrease the number of power peak loads and so new regulations concerning more frequent meter readings will probably be put in practice. In this essay different kinds of methods are described for data collection with the purpose of finding out which method power companies in Sweden should adopt in the future. Computerized systems that power companies could use are for example CustCom, Mcom and BBIF20. These systems are based on hourly remote meter readings, monthly remote meter readings and hourly remote meter readings combined with certain control functions. Finally it is recommended that power companies in Sweden should introduce hourly remote meter readings on all the power consumption provided that new regulations concerning more frequent meter readings are put into practice.