Wednesday, January 27, 2010

OG&E Selects Norman for Jan. 2010 Smart Meter Energy Efficiency Project

Norman, Oklahoma has been selected to be the first city to participate in OG&E’s Positive Energy Community program. As a result it will become one of the country’s first cities to be blanketed with smart meters and hundreds of “energy portals” located in homes. Within the next couple of years OG&E will install 42,000 smart meters in the city. About 2,000 homes will have a programmable thermostat installed and other devices that are designed to help consumers monitor and control their energy usage.

With the new meters OG&E can remotely connect and disconnect electrical service and is notified immediately if there are problems occurring in the power grid. The programmable thermostats and graphical display units allow customers to easily understand how and when they are using energy and can help them make decisions that save them money. On average, customers who used the displays were able to save between 10 and 15 percent off their electric bills during the test in 2008. They did so by using power during off-peak times when the cost of energy is cheaper.

Click here for the complete article.

No comments: