Automatic meters arrive in Mattawa

Electricity-consumers in Mattawa, Royal City and Royal Slope will soon see automatic energy meters on their properties, which means they’ll see a lot fewer meter readers.

Grant County Public Utility District is halfway through its two-year long overhaul of the county’s outdated metering system, which require meter readers to regularly check a consumer’s power usage, with an automatic system that sends data straight to the utility district every day.

Utility officials said this will lead to a number of benefits to customers. For one, homeowners will no longer regularly have meter readers on their property.

“I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want our meter readers on their property, they’re really nice people,” said Chuck Allen, public affairs officer for the utility district. “But there’s more privacy with the advanced meters.”

Advanced meters will also end the practice of estimating energy usage during times, particularly in winter, where meter readers are not available or able to manually check user data. In the past, this estimation has meant customers often receive bills during winter months that don’t reflect actual usage, discrepancies that need to be ironed out in the following month’s bills.

The new system will also assist utility officials in pinpointing outages with precision. Sometimes repairs to power outages don’t restore electricity to every affected individual, said Allen, and the utility district currently relies on customers calling in to report outages. With the new meters, the utility district will know immediately if an individual home is experiencing outages, even if the homeowner is out of town.

The advanced meters will record data in 15-minute packets, utility district officials said, which can help users pinpoint when their electricity usage spikes. The meters will only collect data on usage, Allen said, and cannot be used to identify what the power is being used for.

Utility district customers can opt out of automatic communication between the meter and the utility district, but they cannot opt out of the new meters themselves. Those who request to opt out are required to pay roughly $250 for installation and about $64 a month in service fees to compensate the utility district for the cost of manually reading meters.

Only residential meters can opt out of the new communication system, and only homeowners can make the choice. Homeowners are also only allowed to opt out for homes they live in, meaning they cannot push the service fees onto renters.

Implementation of the new system is slated to cost $14.9 million over three years, but utility district officials said the program will pay for itself in six years after completion due to savings from reduced meter reader hours and transportation costs. Over 10 years, the program is expected to save the utility district $35.6 million.