New Smart Digital Electricity Meters

I was at a home depot center in Escondido, California, over the weekend and ran into an energy-efficiency exposition. In the parking lot booths were set up for people to learn about and buy energy saving appliances and other gadgets. Customers were lined up to trade in their old light bulbs for new energy saving lights. One booth in particular caught my attention. It was San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) booth displaying their new digital meters. Smart meters, as they are known as, will replace the old electricity meters (which have been around for over a century) with wireless, digital devices. After researching a little about this new technology and what it means for customers and the environment, I thought the facts were very interesting.

Smart meters will do more than just eliminate the meter maid’s position (an SDG&E spokesman says they will not lay off any meter-readers). These new meters provide customers with detailed energy data that can help them reduce energy use and costs. SDG&E officials claim they can manger energy demand easier, identify gas leaks and other problems, and reduce meter-reading errors. Smart meters are better able to detect power outages, easier to restore power in the event of an outage, and will improve customer service relations, simply because customers will have detailed information at any time, day or night. No only will customers be able to monitor their gas and electricity consumption in order to avoid higher utility rates, they can earn a rebate for reducing their energy use on peak usage days. SDG&E’s research revealed that as long as people know how much energy they are using, they are likely to cut back by 5 to 10 percent.

This program was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2007. It is expected to take 2 1/2 years to replace the 1.4 million electric meters for their 3.4 million customers and cost $572 million dollars. Some of the cost for the new meters will be paid by the customers at a rate of $1 to $1.50 a month for the technology. However the amount of money the customer can save if they take the time and effort to monitor their usage could be much greater. In addition, SDG&E plans to reward customers with credit if they reduce the power consumption during peak hours, where they can save as much as $25 to $30 a month.

For example, customers will get an email sent to them saying electricity demand is peaking (which means higher rates) and they could then turn off the ice maker, or turn the thermostat down, or decide not to run major appliances. What is even more interesting is that SDB&E has partnered up with the internet giant, Google, with their new program “Google PowerMeter” to allow customers to get their daily energy usage information from the World Wide Web.

SDG&E has pioneered this new transitory technology and I have no doubt we will see more gas and electricity companies following suit. This is one small step towards reducing energy usage and costs, but we still need to do a lot more in our effort to reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy sources. Do you think this will deter the research and effort to switch completely to renewable energy sources and technology? Tell me what you think.