That’s a good point: in some cases you may be able to get access to the data stream from your smart meter even though you can’t connect it directly to your SmartThings hub.
The rainforest eagle is a device that gets attached (with utility company permission) to the network that your smart meter is already on. Then you can get information from it through an API or app. See the following thread for information on how other community members have used it:
Other utility companies may have similar options for other devices. Note that you aren’t adding the smart meter itself to your ST zigbee network, you’re just getting access to its output data stream. But that’s often all people are looking for anyway. 