Piedmont Electric will be installing and testing new meters this summer for a portion of members. Then, if everything goes as planned, we will roll out the new meters to all members.
These new meters will provide more information to members and the cooperative which will enable more informed energy decisions.
This information will provide you with details about your energy use throughout the day so you can determine how changes in your home or energy efficiency projects impact your power bill. It will also help provide information on whether you might benefit from one of our different rate options like our time-of-day rate.
For the cooperative, this information will provide insights into the energy use across our system, improve the speed with which we can identify issues on our grid, help us spot outages before members can report them and give us better control of our equipment in the field.
This means we will be strengthening our already strong reliability, decreasing the length of power outages and saving you money by allowing us to operate our system more efficiently.
Your cooperative operates as a not-for-profit utility and as such we are always concerned with the money we spend as we know it ultimately comes from our members. We do not take the cost of replacing these meters lightly.
This project was moved to a higher priority when our meter manufacturer informed us that they will be ending the support of our current meters and will soon stop providing replacement meters.
Despite this pressure, our staff has conducted a thorough review of metering systems to determine which one will be the best fit for our system.
Our new meters will transmit information using secure frequencies. The frequencies are like those in your home’s WiFi but can only be received and used by Piedmont Electric’s system.
Members who would prefer an analog meter be used can choose to do so. These members will be assessed a monthly meter reading fee to cover the extra cost of sending personnel out to read a meter each month.
Piedmont Electric will be working with contractors to supplement the work of our staff to install the new meters across our system. These contractors will be in marked vehicles and will not need any information from you.
You will not need to be home or do anything to prepare so long as we have access to your meter.
However there will be a brief power outage of several minutes while the new meter is installed. Members who are at home during the day will be able to make an appointment to help minimize disruption at their home.
