So Are Smart Meters as Smart as You Think?

Smart meters are going to become a reality by 2019 in the City of Lubbock -- more specifically, for LP&L customers.

Some people are excited, others, well, not so much.

LP&L made the following claims about the advanced meters in a press release:

By upgrading LP&L’s system with advanced meters, the utility will be able to better serve its customers by:

 

• Improving Billing Accuracy

  • Eliminates manual meter reading
  • Reduces billing errors

• Improving Customer Service

  • Increases efficiency in addressing customer inquiries
  • Decreases time required to start or transfer service for new and current customers
  • Increases customer support capabilities and expands customer service options

• Empowering Customers

  • Provides accurate, near real-time data so customers can track and better manage their electricity use
  • After installation, customer service will be able to provide an in-depth look into customers’ usage patterns
  • In the future, customers will be able to log on to an interactive portal where they can access the same data at any time (currently scheduled to launch in 2020)

• Improving Outage Management

  • Automatically alerts LP&L to outages, even before a customer reports them
  • Automatically identifies the location of the outage
  • Reduces time required to restore power to all affected customers

• Enhancing Reliability

  • Allows LP&L to conduct load analysis to help ensure transformers do not get overloaded

  • Allows LP&L to accurately and efficiently forecast Lubbock’s current and future energy needs

  • Provides new data to help determine when and where LP&L should make investments in the system to meet Lubbock’s growing energy demand

If you do not want a smart meter, however, you can opt out. It will cost you an installation charge for the old-style meter and $25 a month to have someone read it. LP&L has not responded to the question, 'What if I already have an old style meter and want to keep it, will I have to pay this so-called installation charge?'

When we find out, we'll let you know!