Smart Choice meters
By: J. David Chapman/July 14, 2022
In October 2019, the Edmond City Council approved full implementation of Smart Choice, an initiative to install smart meters for electrical and water service in both residential and commercial properties. Smart Choice is a group of programs and services, implemented over time, that uses data provided by upgraded smart meters. Smart Choice will help you better track and manage utility usage as well as allowing utilities to provide enhanced services and programs to the consumer.
In general, a smart meter is an electronic device that records information such as consumption of electric energy, voltage levels, current, and power factor. Smart meters communicate the information to the consumer for greater clarity of consumption behavior, and electricity suppliers for system monitoring and customer billing. Smart meters typically record energy near real-time, and they report regularly, short intervals throughout the day.
Half of all electric and water meters in the U.S. are now considered smart meters, having two-way communication. Oklahoma Gas & Electric completed their smart meter installations in 2013 and has approximately 560,000 smart meters in operation, including Oklahoma City. Public Service of Oklahoma has installed about 550,000 smart meters, with approximately 220,000 in Tulsa. Broken Arrow and Norman have fully implemented smart meters in their cities. Edmond is the largest municipality that has not embraced smart-meter technology, but that ends this summer with Utility Partners of America contracted to begin installing meters. Installation will be done in segments throughout the next 18 months to two years.
Benefits include automatic meter readings that do not require visits to the home, more timely and accurate billing, better reliability and quality of service from utilities, and automatic outage and event notification. Even with all the advantages of smart meters, not all consumers will embrace the use of the technology; some may wish to opt out of the service. Most municipalities offer an opt-out plan. Edmond, like others, will offer an opt-out plan with a one-time installation charge and an additional monthly fee.
As more electric companies continue to manage, operate, and invest in an increasingly digital energy grid, the next critical step is to utilize the data generated from smart meters as a strategic asset to improve grid operations, use customer resources more efficiently, and offer new services to customers to improve and reduce electric costs. So, how smart is your meter?
J. David Chapman is a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).