Pacific Power to install smart meters in Portland area

Pacific Power recently announced that it will begin installing smart meters in the Portland, Oregon area at the end of January.

The company will install approximately 78,000 new smart meters for customers in parts of North, Northeast, Southeast, and downtown Portland as well as Maywood Park. The installations are scheduled to begin the week of Jan. 28 and continue through June.

In total, Pacific Power will replace 590,000 meters across the state from now through 2019.

“We’re installing smart meters in Portland as part of a statewide upgrade for the homes and businesses we serve,” Diana Knous, Pacific Power’s regional business manager for Multnomah County, said. “It’s a project that will enable our communities to take advantage of faster, more efficient energy technology.”

The new smart meters will track outages in real time, let customers view through their hour-by-hour power usage through a secure website, provide businesses with detailed usage reporting and help upgrade the grid to work more efficiently and better integrate renewable power sources.

“This upgrade brings a future of reliable and efficient power to our region and to our state,” Knous said. “We are connecting communities throughout Oregon, improving the way we power our customers’ lives both at home and at work.”

Across the United States, more than 70 million smart meters are installed at homes and businesses, including approximately half of all households nationwide.