Rockland Electric briefs community leaders on smart meter installations

Rockland Electric Company briefed approximately 40 community leaders at an event Thursday in Mahwah Township, New Jersey, on its plans to install smart meters throughout its New Jersey service territory.

Event attendees included public officials, emergency management chiefs, and civic leaders.

Rockland Electric began installing the meters in Bergen County, New Jersey, on May 1. It has already installed approximately 1,500 of the devices and estimates that it will complete full installation of electric smart meters in its service area in approximately one year at a cost of approximately $16.5 million.

The company noted several benefits of the smart meter installations including reduced meter reading and billing costs, faster power restoration in the event of an outage, enhanced customer control over energy consumption, and improved electric grid planning and operation.

“Smart meters, which already serve about 70 million customers nationwide, are safe, secure and reliable encrypted devices that will provide two-way, wireless communication between Rockland Electric and its customers’ electric service,” the company said in a press release.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approved Rockland Electric’s plans to deploy smart meters on Aug. 23. In its approval order, the NJBPU deemed Rockland Electric’s cost-benefit analysis sufficient for the smart meter program to proceed and noted that the smart meter program has the potential to satisfy the goals of the NJ Energy Master Plan (EMP).