# What insights can be gathered from electric/gas smart meters within the field of machine learning or deep learning?

I'm currently doing my graduate research for my Master's degree at a particular firm. Initially, I was supposed to classify images of smart meters in homes using deep learning technology. Unfortunately, the dataset available is extremely limited, so I'm not able to do this particular project.

However, there are some datasets available of smart meter readings. Can you guys tell me what I could potentially retrieve from these kind of datasets? It must be within the field of deep learning or machine learning. I prefer deep learning over machine learning. The supervisor from the firm suggests finding outliers and predicting faulty equipment this way. But I'm afraid my supervisor from the university Isn't going to accept it, due to the simplicity of the project and because it leans too much towards data analysis, rather than data science.

The data can be very basic:

Time                   Usage
2014-11-28 00:30:00    2.085885556
2014-11-28 00:45:00    2.391335556
2014-11-28 01:00:00    2.092666667


But also more comprehensive like the Kaggle dataset smart meters in London

On the one hand, I have to do a research within the field of data science, but on the other hand, I have to deliver a useful end product/application for the firm I'm doing my internship at. I'm having a hard time finding a balance between these two.