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Texhoma and Oslo getting new hi-tech meters |
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Monday, 15 March 2010 |
Tri-County Electric Cooperative is deploying a full two-way advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to its entire service territory. About 23,000 meters will be converted by the end of 2011.
By LEE COLEMAN
Assistant Editor
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Tri-County Electric Cooperative is deploying a full two-way advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to its entire service territory. About 23,000 meters will be converted by the end of 2011. Contractor crews for the cooperative, along with cooperative employees, will be switching out meters systematically in the town of Texhoma and the community of Oslo between March 17 and March 26.
"It will take us about two weeks and we should be finished sometime near the end of March." said Zac Perkins, manager of Communications and Member Relations.
Members should not be alarmed if they see Tri-County Electric contractors working near their property. Contractor personnel will be in trucks bearing a sign identifying them as a Tri-County Electric contractor. They will knock on the door of residential accounts at the time of the switch. If no one is home, they will leave a door hanger notifying them of the change. Conversions for industrial accounts will be prearranged.
During the installation, members may experience a brief [five seconds or so] outage as contractors cut the breaker off at the bottom of the meter, install the new one and turn it back on.
The move to AMI is strategic for the cooperative as it brings many benefits to its members. A few of the benefits include:
* Lower operational costs such as those for meter reading and transportation.
* Reduced need to access your property to read your meters.
* Improved call resolution – the AMI system will give employees the ability to provide members with more detailed information such as power consumption patterns, outage and blink count history, voltage information and reducing high bill inquiries.
* Better outage management.
* Reduced employee injuries, especially in areas with fenced yards, dogs and landscaping.
"Over the long term, these meters will pay for themselves multiple times by allowing us to diagnose issues immediately. It will make our outage times much more responsive because we're going to know when a meter goes out because right now, we rely on members to call us if the power goes out," explained Perkins. "Knowing when a meter goes out will our outage times better, make our reliability higher and make us deal with the response faster.
“We appreciate your cooperation and patience during this transition to advanced metering infrastructure,” added Perkins. “All electric meters will be read remotely once this system-wide enhancement is in place.”
If you have questions regarding this change, contact Tri-County Electric at 800-522-3315 or visit www.tri-countyelectric.coop.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 19 March 2010 )
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