Michigan’s new energy future starts with new “smart meters” that will begin to be installed in Muskegon County in August.
“Our energy future starts with the new meter,” Consumers spokesman Roger Morgenstern told The Muskegon Rotary Club Thursday noon. “It is rolling out here first in Muskegon County.”
The meters look similar to what most businesses and residents currently have on the outside of their buildings and houses, Morgenstern said. But the “smart meter” is a two-way communication device that uses standard cellular telephone technology through the Verizon Wireless system to send information to the Jackson-based public utility, he said.
The smart meters have a couple of initial advantages but their use in the future is limited to the imagination of the designers of all kinds of electrical devices found in homes and businesses.
The first advantage for the electric company and its customers is that real-time electric use will be transmitted and stored by Consumers Energy.
Another advantage is instant notification of power outages. Currently, customer must report a power outage before Consumers Energy can begin to respond to it, Morgenstern said. And the new meters also allow the company to automatically turn electric service on and off without having to dispatch company workers, Morgenstern said.
In the future, many other applications could be devised for the smart meter technology. The customer will eventually be able to log into their energy account over the Internet to review their energy use. Electric use will be recorded by the hour, Morgenstern said.
So if a customer wants to see the difference in electric use and the cost of keeping their house air conditioned in the summer at 71 degrees vs. 68 degrees, that comparison could be made and information retrieved.
“We will be able to give you more information concerning your energy use,” Morgenstern told the Muskegon Rotary Club gathered at the Holiday Inn Muskegon Harbor. “Right now, it is hard to know how much energy we use.”
Smart meter critics have raised concerns over health and privacy issues of the new devices. Morgenstern said smart meters are both safe and secure.
The smart meter sends out what is the equivalent of six, small text messages a day. That radio frequency stream is not a health hazard as the meter does not constantly emit a radio signal, Morgenstern said.
“This is like pushing your garage door opener, which puts out more radio frequency energy than the new meter,” Morgenstern said of what scientists have reported.
As for security, the smart meter system only collects aggregate energy use. It cannot detect what kind of electric use within a business or house such as what appliances or devices are used when, Morgenstern said. All of the information is encrypted and protected while being transmitted to Consumers Energy, he said.
“Safety and privacy are of utmost importance to us,” Morgenstern said.
Installation in Muskegon County will be followed by Ottawa, Allegan and Kent counties. The second phase of the installation will be south central Michigan and last phase Northern Michigan. All 1.8 million Consumers Energy electrical customers should have the new meters by 2019.
Company officials will mail a notification 30 days prior to installation, which takes about 10 minutes but briefly interrupts power to a house or business, Morgenstern said.
“Michigan can’t afford to fall behind in this area of new technology,” Morgenstern said. Some 20 million smart meters have already been installed across the country and 50 million worldwide, he said
