When Gary Stockbridge, Atlantic City Electric region president, told The Press editorial board a year ago about its desire to start switching customers to smart meters, New Jersey was one of just three states that hadn’t approved widespread use of the digitally networked meters.
The state Board of Public Utilities had a moratorium on utilities moving ahead with plans for the meters and the networking infrastructure to allow two-way communication between electricity providers and residential and business users.
Last month, the BPU lifted its two-year moratorium and the state embraced the technology as a key to better power management in the clean-energy future.
With smart meters, utilities get quick and detailed notices of outages and brownouts, information on usage and supply patterns (important now that so many solar panels put electricity into the local grid) and the ability to offer new and expanded services. These can include energy-savings programs and time-based pricing (for recharging auto batteries more cheaply overnight, for example).
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The data on usage will help utility engineers determine where upgrades are needed in the electricity distribution system. It can also help detect unsafe conditions in homes and businesses.
Stockbridge said 40% of the energy efficiency savings possible in power distribution is from advanced metering infrastructure.
He said Atlantic City Electric was prepared to file a smart-meter plan within two or three months once the state allowed it. The BPU’s action included directing New Jersey’s largest utilities to file such a plan within six months.
There will be significant costs associated with digitally networked smart meters. A plan proposed in 2018 by the state’s largest utility, Public Service Electric & Gas, estimated the conversion of its more than 2 million customers would take six years and cost $794 million. Presumably those costs will be offset by the savings from efficiency gains.
Smart meters also have foes. Some see their gathering of data on each customer as a breach of privacy. Several states have responded by restricting utilities’ use of customer information, and New Jersey should do so as well.
Questions about possible health impacts have been raised, but public utility commissions have generally found no impact. The Maine Supreme Court ruled smart meters pose no credible health or safety threat, based on more than 100 peer-reviewed studies on the issue.
One worry is perhaps inescapable in the modern age — that networked digital meters will make customers more susceptible to cyberattacks. Presumably technology can protect against that.
In response to such concerns, several states have allowed consumers to opt-out of smart meter installation. Too much of that, though, would reduce the effectiveness of advanced metering.
The BPU allowed customers to opt out of a pilot smart meter program offered by Rockland Electric Co. But they had to pay $45 to remove the meter and an additional $15 monthly charge. That would surely limit opting out to a minimum.
Ratepayers will need to keep an eye on how advanced metering infrastructure is implemented and its costs, but done right the benefits will be well worth it.
Maybe New Jersey will even benefit from being one of the last to join this trend.
No doubt the technology and the understanding of its best installation and use have improved from the experience of nearly all other states.
