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Politics & Government

Home Electricity Usage To Be Under Scrutiny

Smart meters will give U.S. Department of Energy experts close look at Marblehead residents' use of electricity.

A town resident who is buying a new Chevy Volt, the all-electric car, called the Municipal Light Department recently to inquire about a new time-of-day pricing system that might allow him to charge his car's batteries overnight for less money.

For Robert Jolly, general manager of the town's electric company, it was another example of how the new smart meters, coming to town next year, will impact and may even change significantly residents' behavior in how they use electricity.

"I've talked to a lot of people, and they are excited," he said.

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The Light Department plans to replace the more than 10,000 electric meters in Marblehead with new smart meters starting in February. The new meters will be monitored continuously through a wireless system and will allow customers to view on line how much electricity they are using in real time.

"They can turn on the dryer and see how much it is costing them. They can turn on the plasma TV and they will know how much it costs," he said.

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The smart meter program, which will be installed for about $2.6 million, is being closely watched by the Department of Energy (DOE), which is paying a little more than $1.3 million for the Marblehead's system, because of the system's potential to change behavior of electricity users.

DOE has assigned some of its best experts on behavioral modification to work with Marblehead, Jolly said.

"DOE is really interested in consumer behavior. I talk to DOE more about behavioral issues than any other subject," Jolly said.

The light department is very interested too. "If 10,000 customers cut their usage by half a kilowatt at an hour that I ask them to, that would take 5 megawatts off our peak load," Jolly said. He expects the system, which he has described "as a cutting edge program," will allow the department to motivate customers to control their usage.

On Thursday, Jolly showed several of his commission members how much information the system will provide for consumers. The web-based system will tell customers their electricity usage every 15-minutes, how much the electricity has cost them each hour of the day and how much it is likely to cost them for the entire month.

The department has narrowed the field of possible companies to install the meters and design the system for Marblehead to two companies – Intelagrid of Locust Grove, VA, and Trilliant of Redwood City, CA. The contractor will be selected at the commission's September meeting.

The meter-replacement program, which is part of a national DOE program to manage electricity usage, will take a year to 18 months to install all of the new meters in Marblehead, Jolly said. The department's funds for the project are already budgeted and would not cost the town or the ratepayers any additional funds, he said.

As part of the program, the department will conduct a test of 500 randomly selected customers. He told his commission Wednesday that the department will guarantee that none of the 500 customers will lose money on the pilot program. "They can keep any savings, but if their bills go up, we will true them out for the year," he said.

The system is expected to save the department money by not having to dispatch trucks to check individual meters for outages or to turn the power on and off, he said. For every dollar the department spends on this project, it expects to see a return of $1.36, Jolly said.

For the guy buying the new Volt, Marblehead was way ahead of the times. It set an electric car rate 16 years ago at 4 cents a kilowatt hour less.

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