Longmont will begin the citywide phase of its electric meter upgrade on the week of Aug. 15, replacing approximately 50,000 manually-read meters with up-to-date self-reading units. The project will take about a year.
The new meters do not require a monthly visit from a meter reader but will read themselves for a few seconds every hour, capturing the energy use of a home or business more fully than traditional manually-read units. More than 500 of the meters were installed last October in southern Longmont as the opening phase of the City’s advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) project.
“This transition marks a huge step forward for Longmont,” said Darrell Hahn, Interim Executive Director of Longmont Power & Communications (LPC). “In conjunction with our continuing progress toward 100% renewable energy, these meters will help make our community’s electricity more reliable, more sustainable and open up new possibilities for energy efficiency.”
The new self-reading meters will be installed at no cost to the customer.
Nearly 70% of all electric meters in the United States are now advanced meters, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Over approximately the next three years, Longmont’s advanced meters will allow a number of new capabilities to be deployed, including:
- Reduction in Field Trips: LPC will be able to accommodate move-ins and move-outs by remotely turning electric service on or off in seconds, saving the hundreds of field trips needed for manual turn-ons and turn-offs, as well as eliminating the carbon emissions those trips would have generated.
- Energy Awareness: LPC staff will be able to help customers see their electric consumption hour-by hour, enabling them to make more energy-efficiency choices than would be possible with the current monthly report.
- Electric Outage Detection: The meters will report outages to LPC within seconds, allowing crews to begin restoring power more quickly.
- Infrastructure Assessment: The new metering data will help LPC better evaluate energy flow and system conditions, allowing Longmont’s local grid to work more efficiently as more renewable energy comes onto the system.
- Potential New Rate Programs: The meters could allow LPC to offer lower rates for off-peak consumption, such as overnight charging of an electric vehicle.
Information about the project is available online at the City’s advanced metering page, www.longmontcolorado.gov/AMI and will include an ongoing map of the project once installations begin.
Residential customers who wish to opt-out and receive a new hand-read meter instead may do so, but will pay an installation cost along with a monthly charge to help defray the cost of a meter reader and will not have access to many of the enhancements provided by the self-reading meters. A link to the opt-out form can be found on the advanced metering page.
Residents with questions about the project can call LPC at 303-651-8386.
