'Smart Meters' Could Help Reduce Electric Bills, Billing Issues Still Possible

Staff and Wire Reports

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has approved a proposal by Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. to install new digital electric meters.

The three-member commission on Thursday authorized the plan, which calls for the use of $130 million in federal economic stimulus funds.

OG&E applied in August for matching funds to speed up deployment of its smart-grid technology across its 30,000-square-mile territory in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.

A smart grid requires installation of so-called "smart meters" at customer locations to replace existing electric meters.

The meters transmit information about electricity use to the utility through a newly installed wireless communications network.

In some states, California in particular has had several problems when rolling out their 'smart meters,' but OG&E said customers in Oklahoma won't have those issues.

"They're already seeing savings from the first bills that went out, so we're seeing some customers are changing behaviors and savings associated with that," said Kenneth Grant with Oklahoma General and Electric.

Customers can have voluntary in-home devices installed to monitor their electricity use and take advantage of lower electrical rates during off-peak hours.

"I don't know if it's due to the weather or not but the bill does not seem to be as expensive as it was in past summers" said resident Stephanie Kim.

"My electric bill is usually a little over $100 dollars a month, and it showed we used less electricity than usual this month and yet my bill was almost $200," Stacey Grensberg wrote to NEWS 9.

It's those kinds of problems that led to a lawsuit against an electric company in California where some 50,000 customers reported problems with their smart meters, including issues where the company chose to estimate customer's utility bills when the smart meters failed to work.

But OG&E said they've learned from those issues.

"We will not estimate a smart meter, so if we cannot communicate with a meter for any reason we will actually send a field person out to get an actual reading for that meter," said Grant.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy commented on 'smart meters' saying if utility companies are able to use the meters to their full capabilities, then a person could reduce their energy consumption from 4 to 12 percent.