Electricity Users Would Have to Pay for Smart Meters Under Plan

Electricity Users Would Have to Pay for Smart Meters Under Plan
Posted on: Thursday, 22 May 2008, 21:00 CDT

By Elizabeth Souder, The Dallas Morning News

May 22--Oncor Electric Delivery Co., a unit of Energy Future Holdings, wants to install a new, high-tech electricity meters in every home and business in North Texas by 2012.

If regulators approve the plan, residential customers would have to pay around $2.35 per month for the next 11 years for their new meters.

The regulated power line company says the meters can collect so much data about how customers are using electricity that most customers can use the meters to help trim their usage by around 5 percent. That's enough to cover the monthly meter fee.

"Consumers will be able to see how much electricity they use throughout the day and, using that information, make smarter decisions about how they consume electricity and when, in order to save money on their electric bills," said Oncor chief executive Bob Shapard in a statement.

Oncor said in a press release Thursday it aims to install 3 million of the advanced meters in North Texas. Company spokesman Chris Schein said the project will cost around $690 million.

Oncor plans to file the plan with the Public Utility Commission next week, he said. The commission must approve the plan before Oncor may charge customers for the meters.

If the commission agrees to the plan, every Oncor customer will get a new meter, like it or not.

The commission has instructed regulated power line companies to upgrade to high-tech meters, sometimes called "smart meters," that can transmit information about customer usage throughout the day. Mr. Schein said the meters Oncor chose meet all of the PUC's requirements.

With the information the meters collect, retail electricity companies, such as TXU Energy or Reliant, can offer new customer products. For example, a retailer could charge customers a higher price for power used during peak hours of the day.

Some retailers say they will offer home electricity monitors, allowing customers to see their usage real-time, and control their electricity costs before the monthly bill arrives.

The meters will also allow Oncor to detect outages remotely, and help the company fix problems more quickly.

The company had proposed a different plan for deploying new meters involving broadband-over-power line service. That idea collapsed earlier this month when Oncor announced it bought all of the BPL equipment from its partner, Current Communications.

Current had planned to work with Oncor to install BPL meters in 2 million North Texas homes, allowing people to sign up for Internet service through their electricity wires. Now, the Internet service won't be available at all.