I&M expands smart meter rollout | Local

Indiana Michigan Power is expanding the installation of smart meters to gauge electricity usage while sending fewer employees out for readings.

The utility company Wednesday announced it plans to install 57,000 smart meters by Jan. 31 and 195,000 by the end of 2022.

A news release said the smart meters give customers more control over energy use and bills.

The changeover started in the Fort Wayne area in September and since then nearly 30,000 smart meters have been installed.

The company said it will be in direct communication with residents who will receive the new meters and also plans a “robust marketing campaign” that includes social media to educate customers about the benefits the wireless technology allows.

Residential homeowners in Indiana and Michigan can decline a smart meter, the company said, but it will result in a monthly fee. The amount of that charge was not immediately available, but the news release said the fee would vary state to state and “goes toward the costs associated with sending an I&M employee to read the meter.”

Most of I&M’s Fort Wayne-area customers fall between Decatur in Adams County, on the south end, to Butler in DeKalb County to the north. About 156,000 of the smart meter installs would be in the city of Fort Wayne, but the utility company also has “a bit of territory stretching from around Portland to near Angola,” Michael Bianski, a communications consultant, said through email.

The smart meters use secure, two-way wireless communication to measure and record electricity usage and send the information from a customer’s meter to I&M, similar to how a cellphone, laptop or TV remote works. The data gathered informs customers what time of day they are using the most energy and helps personalize energy-savings tips, such as suggesting taking a shorter shower in the morning, the news release said.

I&M did not provide an estimate Wednesday afternoon on how much the smart meters installation initiative will cost the company.

Customers can also receive alerts informing them when their bill reaches a certain amount, enabling them to cut back on usage, similar to text messages some cell companies send users about data usage.

And the smart meters connect with I&M’s internal systems, alerting the company to outages, which could speed response and restoration times, the company said.

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