Eric are you or a family member experiencing any of these?

Some residents living in homes with smart meters have reported experiencing various symptoms, including:

Headaches and migraines
Sleep disturbances
Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
Concentration difficulties
Fatigue
Dizziness
Heart palpitations

Those dots are like the spinning disc on the old meters. the faster the dots go from 1-4 dots...1-4 dots, the faster your meter's "spinning". If the dots aren't cycling there's no load.

Yes, the faster the dots move from left to right the more load/usage, could be meter specific. If you are showing usage with the main turned off you have an issue.
There is a few reasons that can be checked by a quality electrician. I have seen in the past, are usually related to corrosion. On the lugs, in meter base and main panel, if using aluminum wires, there should/needs to be anti-oxidant. If none was used or little was used after time corrosion builds up. When your meter was replaced this may have unintentionally jarred the connections caused this to surface. Underground wiring of service entry into the house not in conduit. After time and cold cycles will cause some issues but since this happened after a meter change my money would be in the meter base. You most likely will be able to see the corrosion on a lug.
If you could leave your main off for an hour two, write the numbers down on meter and then turn off main, write numbers down just before turning on to see usage during that time. It may not show too much because there wont be much load. As load/usage increases the corrosion/resistance will increase causing more usage. The longer you could leave off, the more accurate you will be.
This is just my internet opinion and may be way off base since I cant see it or test myself .

I have a friend who works at JCPL for 43 years , I can ask him if you want me to ?

They changed the meter today. The squares that indicate usage move much slower on this one. Also all the digital numbers clear off to a blank screen about twice a minute, the old one did not do that. We will know the answer on October first when Septembers bill arrives. Eric

I wonder if they will reimburse you if the replaced meter is found to be at fault.

Reimbursement by a power company, that's a good one.

That's what I thought.

If his usage goes back close the range it was prior to the jump when the previous meter was installed with this new meter, they absolutely should recalculate his usage for the entire time the faulty meter was installed and cut him a check and an apology letter. They have a record of his usage so it is not rocket science to adjust based on averages.

I doubt that will happen. At best, they may give him credit against a future month’s charge.

Interesting. All of our digital meters cycle through the displays like that. Maybe it was factory defect or they stuck the wrong meter in. When we cross over to smarts, it’ll probably be contractors doing the swaps. They inspect our poles and tag them. I’ve seen lots of customer owned poles stamped and even fence posts…..lol. Sometimes they don’t higher the sharpest knife in the drawer.