Fundamental Change Coming to Town Electric Metering

One of the items buried in the town of Franklin's latest newsletter is information about the Smart Metering project getting underway under the auspices of National Grid. And while some of the obvious benefits are being emphasized by that company, its ultimate implications have been left unstated, namely the potential ability to ramp up utility rates during times of peak demand as a tool for helping to control that demand.

Wikipedia explains: "Since the inception of electricity deregulation and market-driven pricing throughout the world, utilities have been looking for a means to match consumption with generation. Non-smart electrical and gas meters only measure total consumption, providing no information of when the energy was consumed. Smart meters provide a way of measuring electricity consumption in near real-time. This allows utility companies to charge different prices for consumption according to the time of day and the season.[ It also facilitates more accurate cash-flow models for utilities. Since smart meters can be read remotely, labor costs are reduced for utilities."

For their part, National Grid describes the "advantages" somewhat more guardedly, namely that the new smart meter technology will help consumers:

> Review their near real-time energy usage in hourly, daily, or weekly increments on their National Grid MyAccount portal

> Get proactive notifications on their account such as high usage alerts to help forecast and adjust their usage, potentially lowering their next bill before it arrives

> Receive weekly and monthly energy usage summaries, as well as personalized energy savings tips

According to a letter sent to the Franklin Town Administrator, 'the
first phase of the AMI program deployment is to build out the
communications of Field Area Network (FAN), that will be utilized to
communicate with the new smart meters. It is necessary that the
network is set up and operational prior to National Grid installing
smart meters...The addition of this equipment to approximately 24
of our existing polies is not structural and will take place over the
next three to six months.'

After that process is complete, the changeover of home meters will commence.

The whole program was approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (MA DPU) back in 2022 and involves junking some 1.4 million existing meters at a replacement cost of around $300 million. The entire rollout is expected to take three to five years to complete. There does not yet appear to be a start date for Medway customers.