Naperville almost done with smart meter installation
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Fifty-six thousand six hundred smart meters down and 800 to go.
City officials announced this week that all 57,400 smart meters associated with the Naperville Smart Grid Initiative are on pace to be installed by the end of the month.
The $22 million meter program is designed to upgrade the city's $360 million electric network to provide more efficient, cost-effective and reliable service to customers and provide them with more information on their energy use.
Marc Curran, the city's director of electric utilities, said the mostly-cooperative community is to be credited for the program's on-time completion.
"Our residents and business owners have been tremendous throughout the installation," Curran said Monday. "Our meter installation contractor, Utility Partners of America, as well as our employees, did an outstanding job completing this work safely. I am excited for the future programs the NSGI will bring to our community."
Not everyone is as excited as Curran, however, as 610 of the 800 meters not yet installed are assigned to houses belonging to residents who have thus far refused to allow installers to change their analog meters to the wireless smart meters.
"We're reaching out to those customers who have yet to select either a standard wireless smart meter or the non-wireless meter alternative in the next week to inform them of their options and next steps," Curran said. "We're hopeful those people who have told us we're not allowed to replace their meters will realize that is not an option and will select one of the two choices we provide."
Most of the remaining 300 meters have been delayed because modifications need to be made to decks or other obstructions to access and replace existing meters.
