Naperville Installs Smart Meter at City Manager's Home as Part of Naperville Smart Grid Initiative Pilot
City Manager Doug Krieger and his family are among the first residents in Naperville to have a smart meter installed on their home as part of the Naperville Smart Grid Initiative (NSGI) pilot program. City Department of Public Utilities-Electric employee Dan McMinn installed the smart meter on the Krieger residence on Wednesday, July 13. The removal of Krieger's old analog meter and installation of the new digital smart meter took less than two minutes to complete. A complete web gallery of photos from the installation is available to view at www.naperville.il.us/nsgimeterinstall.aspx.
“The City is excited to be moving forward with this exciting project,” Community Relations Manager Nadja Lalvani said. “This project is the right thing to do for our utility customers, offering them more options and choices to manage their energy while increasing reliability, efficiency and reducing our carbon footprint.”
To ensure that the NSGI equipment, systems and business processes are operating properly before the anticipated full rollout starting in November, two pilot programs are being executed. The first took place in-house at the City's Electric Service Center and tested basic equipment functionality. From July through September, the second pilot is focusing on the smart meter installation process and related resident communications, installation and operation of part of the telecommunications network, call center operations, radio frequency (RF) testing and other key business processes such as customer billing. All pilot program operations will be rigorously tested and evaluated.
The smart meter installation at the Krieger household was part of the second pilot of the NSGI. The NSGI is an investment in Naperville's City-owned utility that will modernize the City's electric grid using digital technology. Along with the installation of smart meters, the NSGI will also modernize the City's electric grid backbone. These upgrades will lead to numerous benefits for Naperville residents and businesses, including maintaining competitive electric rates, greater reliability and efficiency in service, new tools for managing and controlling energy usage, a smaller carbon footprint and potential cost savings.
For more information on the NSGI, visit www.naperville.il.us/smartgrid.aspx. Sign up to receive the latest news on the NSGI via e-mail at www.naperville.il.us/enews.aspx. For more information on the City of Naperville, visit www.naperville.il.us.