Por Dave Schwab
Reportero SDUN

Smart meters that automatically record daily energy use—potentially allowing consumers to save energy and money on their SDG&E bills—are coming soon to Uptown.

“We started rolling out electric and gas smart meters in March of last year and we’ll be finished installing them for our 1.4 million customers by the end of 2011 for all of San Diego County,” said April Bolduc, public relations manager at Sempra Energy.

New smart meters are replacing century-old spinning-dial meters.

“From an electrical grid perspective, we’ve seen more change over the last 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 100,” said Bolduc about the changeover to smart, digital technology.

Smart meters allow two-way communication between customers and SDG&E. Unlike old-style meters that are recorded only once a month, smart meters record daily energy-use information, which is then remotely sent to SDG&E’s computer data center for operations, billing and customer service.

With smart meters, utility customers will have the same type of access to their billing and usage information that they do with their banks or credit card companies. They’ll know exactly when they use energy, and what it costs to use.

A direct benefit to customers, said Bolduc, is the direct access customers will have to information on their day-to-day usage, which they can then use to help control costs.

“It’s really about giving the customer more information so they can take a look at their energy usage before they get their bill at the end of the month,” Bolduc said. “Right now, there’s nothing they can do to change that (usage). Now they’ll be able to do that just by having that (daily) information. We believe customers will be able to reduce their energy by about 5 to 10 percent.”

The transition to smart meters is statewide and mandatory. All investor-owned utilities in California are changing out existing electric and natural gas meters with new, digital-smart meters as part of the state’s energy action plan to reduce energy use and cut costs.

“As part of our national smart grid initiative, we’ll need to be able to make our energy systems more efficient, and smart meters will help do that,” Bolduc said.

Bolduc said switching to smart meters is an energy-saving alternative to building more power plants for San Diego County’s growing energy needs. She noted smart meters are also a major step in creating the “smart home of the future,” in which smart-chip technology will allow consumers to selectively turn their appliances on or off during peak-usage times to conserve energy and reduce costs. Eventually, consumers will be able to remotely control “smart appliances” such as their thermostats in their homes or office via the Internet.

Installing smart meters also has the extra-added benefit of allowing SDG&E to quickly detect power outages as they occur.

“It will make our electrical system more reliable,” Bolduc said.

Bolduc said fears that SDG&E will use smart meters to assess rates based on usage are not justified.

“If [customers] choose, they can sign up for rates where it’s cheapest if they use energy off-peak,” she said. “If they decide to do so, we’ll give them a rebate. If they decide not to, there’s no penalty. It’s just one more way smart meters offer customers a choice.”

Customers will be notified 60 to 90 days prior to smart meters being installed.

“Thirty days out they will receive a letter in the mail telling them what to expect,” Bolduc said. “They don’t need to be in their homes to have their smart meters changed out.”

It takes from five to 15 minutes to change out an electric smart meter; 20 minutes to half an hour for a gas meter.
If customers choose, they can make appointments to be present during installation of their smart meters. If someone is not present, Bolduc said installers will first knock on the home’s door before installing the meter. After installation they will leave a notice on the door. For quality assurance after initial installation, meter readers will continue to read smart meters onsite for a few months after installation. Eventually, meters will be read remotely.

Technology is also being developed to hook smart meters to solar panels.

“We’ll have that finished by April 2011,” said Bolduc. “If you’re a solar customers you will not be able to get a smart meter until after that time.”

There is no cost to customers for installation or conversion to smart meters. In April 2007, the California Public Utilities Commission approved $572 million for SDG&E to implement its smart meter project from 2007 to 2011, replacing an estimated 1.4 million electric and 900,000 gas meters throughout its service area with smart technology.

Bolduc said the utility intends to recycle the old spinning-dial meters that are replaced by smart meters.

SDG&E customers who want to find out when smart meters are being installed in their neighborhood can do so by going to sdge.com/smartmeter for a map. They then can put in their address to learn the time frame for smart meter installation in their area.

For more information about SDG&E’s Smart Meter program, call (800) 411-7343 or go to sdge.com/smartmeter.