PSEG’s rolling energy lab educates customers about benefits of smart meters

PSEG Long Island is rolling out a mobile educational center designed to help answer customers’ questions about electric power, such as the advantages of installing smart meters.

Coined the My Smart Energy Lab, the 48-foot multimedia-equipped mobile trailer draws power from roof-mounted solar panels and has a dozen interactive learning stations. It will soon be appearing in neighborhoods scheduled for smart meter installations and at other events.

“The My Smart Energy Lab was proposed, designed and developed by our own PSEG Long Island employees in order to give our customers better insight into the energy grid, renewable energy, emerging technologies and other important subjects,” said Rick Walden, PSEG Long Island’s vice president of Customer Operations. “We’re excited that it will shed light on the benefits of innovations like smart meters.”

Sixty percent of U.S. households already have smart meters in place and transmitting data, making the units a key smart grid component. Smart meters give customers more information and greater control over their home energy use. The technology reduces the need for meter readers and truck rolls, which utilities say lowers costs for customers. Additionally, smart meters supply electric utilities with information to fix outages more quickly. Utilities also use smart meter technology to help manage more renewable energy sources on the grid efficiently.

PSEG Long Island has installed more than 270,000 smart meters, including 140,514 in 2019. The company is working to complete a smart meter rollout to all 1.1 million customers by 2022.

Customer engagement remains a hot button issue for electric companies that believe Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is a corner piece to the puzzle.

“At this point, we have about 15,000 customers who regularly log into our AMI portal that allows them to see their electric usage in 15-minute intervals,” Lou DeBrino, PSEG Long Island’s director of Meter Services, told Daily Energy Insider. “The number continues to climb. It gives them powerful insights as to how they might be able to adjust their habits to save money.”

With the benefit of customized data on their electricity use, consumers can play a role in reducing energy consumption during peak usage times and lowering their costs by changing their usage patterns.

Another big benefit of smart meters is the ability for utilities to find out the location of power outages immediately and to resolve them faster. Smart meters can keep customers informed about outages and restoration times, as well.

DeBrino cited the two-way electronic interaction between large commercial customers and PSEG’s major accounts team members. “This helps them determine if an outage’s root cause is external or internal to the customer,” he says. “That enables us to promptly allocate the proper resources. The time it saves can make a huge difference for a supermarket or a medical lab.”

Despite the advantages of a smarter, interconnected grid and the overall success of the program, some customers still prefer traditional electric meters.

“We hear a few reasons why customers opt out, including cybersecurity and privacy,” DeBrino said. “One common reason is the misconception that radio frequency emissions from the meters pose a health risk. In reality, the smart meters only broadcast for a fraction of a second, four times a day, resulting in substantially less RF emissions than a short call on a cell phone.”

PSEG Long Island has a low smart meter opt-out rate of 0.74 percent.

The Edison Foundation’s Institute for Electric Innovation expects smart meter adoption will grow to a projected 95 million smart meters installed by 2020 from 13 million 2009.