According to the company, its customers in those communities are receiving new meters this week through the end of April. Customers with the smart meters will be able to take advantage of new programs and services enabled by the meters that will help them save energy.
Ken Devore, director of Edison SmartConnect program at SCE, said: “We have spent several years developing and testing our smart meters to ensure their quality and performance. Installing these new meters is key to providing our customers with new programs and services that will help them to become smarter energy consumers.”
Within the next year, SCE will roll out new pricing plans, programs and services that will help customers make decisions about their energy use. In the second half of 2010 and beyond, once the advanced features are fully activated, the meters will be enabled to communicate with the next generation of smart thermostats, appliances and other devices.
The first meter was installed last September in Downey, California, with installations continuing through 2012 for nearly five million SCE residential and small-business customers in the utility’s 50,000 square mile service territory. To date, SCE has installed approximately 400,000 meters and it has contracted with Corix Utilities to perform most of the installations.
Edison SmartConnect is a $1.6bn program authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission. SCE anticipates customers’ use of the information provided by the new meters will reduce demand on the electricity grid by about 1,000MW.
