Designed to help in power restoration during outages, the new meters will eliminate the need for estimated meter reads by sending text-type messages through the cellular telephone network. The service will begin in 2016.
The company has installed the new meters in Allegan, Barry, Grand Traverse, Ionia, Kalkaska, Kent, Leelanau, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Oceana, and Ottawa counties.
Consumers Energy vice-president and chief customer officer Garrick Rochow said: "These upgraded meters are helping us to be more efficient and to control our costs better.
"While we’re proud to offer benefits to the first 500,000 customers to get the upgraded meters, we are at about 20% of our project goal, which we plan to achieve by the end of 2017."
The upgraded meters will provide businesses with online access to energy use data to track their energy usage.
"Advanced meter technology will also enable us to broaden future opportunities to business customers who can consider the benefits of time-of-use pricing or other energy pricing options that can help them tailor their electrical equipment needs around money-saving options," Rochow added.
The company plans to upgrade meters in the Flint, Kalamazoo and Boyne City regions soon.
Consumers Energy will install the upgraded meters at the Battle Creek, Cadillac, Jackson, Ludington, Saginaw and Tawas regions in 2016 followed by the Clare, Lansing and Midland areas in 2017.
Based on outage notifications from the new meters, the company plans to unveil enhanced outage management system next year, to effectively respond during storms and other power outages and coordinate repair efforts.
