Alabama Power Meter Services Project Manager Reggie Murchison said this week that the company is following up on all complaints presented by some 64 Cleburne County residents last week in a public meeting in Heflin.

Residents met in the Cleburne County Courthouse with a representative of the Alabama Public Service Commission and complaints ranged from high power bills to concerns over the safety of the new “smart” power meters being installed by AP.

During a meeting with The Cleburne News this week in Birmingham Murchison said that the company has obtained the names and addresses from the PSC representative of all those who had issues in the meeting and that AP workers are in the process of following up by contacting each residence or business.

“We take these (complaints) very seriously,” Murchison said. “We will work directly with these customers to address their concerns.”

Both Murchison and AP spokesman Michael Sznajderman said higher bills may be the result of several factors: record setting cold weather, homes with insufficient insulation, the replacement of the old meters which may have been running slow for many years, use of older power eating portable electric heaters and un-insulated electric water heaters.

As for safety, Murchison said, “I feel if there was a problem it would have manifested before now. With 2 million meters installed there has not been any real issue.”

Smart meters and a “smart” grid system have been under development over the past few years as part of a nationwide “green” movement aimed at saving energy and helping companies and customers save money.

The power company began using the meters in the Birmingham area in 2005 when 50,000 were placed in businesses and residences. Statewide deployment began in 2008 and now 925,000 are used throughout the state. Installation of meters for Cleburne County began in September.

In addition, the meters have been placed on over 1 million residences and businesses by Georgia Power, for a total of about 2 million residences across Southern Company. Murchison said Georgia Power started their deployment in 2007. Over a three-year period contractors for AP will be placing 2,000 meters per day.

Nationwide, smart meters are still only a fraction of the 154 million in use, although utilities across the country are moving quickly to install them.

Murchison added, “Alabama Power’s automated smart meters are designed to make meter reading quicker, more efficient and more accurate, will save customers money over the long run and will, in the future, give customers greater control over their electricity usage and opportunities to save on their electric bills.”

Murchison explained that electrical lines come into a home or business carrying 240/120 volts. That electricity is passed through a meter, either a digital smart meter or an old mechanical meter, and then into a junction box/fuse box inside the home or business. He said the meter has no way to increase or decrease the amount of electricity flowing, but is simply a measuring device. ”It does not add or transform the electricity in any way,” he said.

Sznajderman agreed, saying “it’s simply not possible” for the meter to create electrical surges as it only records the flow of electricity.

In addition to recording the amount of electricity used, the smart meters have a communication module inside which allows for the sending of meter readings via a 900 mhz wireless frequency to cell towers. This special frequency was allotted to the meter manufacturer Sensus by the U.S. government. If a cell tower is not in the coverage range of the meter’s communication module, the meter will send the information to another one that is so that usage information is sent out every four hours.

Murchison said AP can “talk” to or “ping” a meter whenever necessary to obtain electrical usage and other information. He said that with the old meters AP had no way of knowing if a specific home was without power and they had no way of knowing if power had been restored following an outage, without visiting the site or hearing from the customer. Now, with the smart meters, the power company will know when and where an outage has occurred and when power has been turned on. This ability will come in very handy during large outages brought about by storms and will enable AP to better allocate its crews during restoration operations.

Sznajderman added that since smart meters can be read remotely, it eliminates the need to have meter readers come to your home, they reduce the miles driven by company personnel, eliminate the need for estimating usage when personnel cannot get to a meter and they improve safety for company employees as they do not have to deal with dogs or hazardous weather conditions.

Murchison said by eliminating the need to read meters the old fashioned way, AP will be able to annually reduce by about four million miles the amount of travel by personnel to collect meter data. That adds up to significant savings on fuel, as well as fewer vehicle emissions.

Sznajderman said the solid state circuitry in the smart meters makes them more accurate than the old, mechanical meters. He said this could partially account for higher bills in Cleburne County, as some of the older mechanical meters may have been 10 years or older and operating slower than they should. With the new meters, “under-reporting or over-reporting of power usage under old meters is reduced significantly,” he added.

Asked about the reports of apparent power spikes, light bulbs blowing often and reports of electronics and appliances being damaged, Murchison suggested loose wiring or bad connections within the home or business could be at fault. He also said bad grounds can create problems and should be checked by a licensed electrician.



He said the meters are “100 percent tested” before being installed and as a solid state electrical device they will stop operating if there is a problem whereas the older meters would just slow down.



As for reports of higher utility bills, Sznajderman said, “The biggest

factor in what customers pay for electricity is how much power they’re

using. In addition, the size/or energy efficiency of their home can affect customer¹s power bills. Unusually cold weather in late December and record-setting cold in early-mid January led to record-setting demand for power by our customers. In fact, Alabama Power customers broke the record for winter electricity usage three times last month ¬ Jan. 5, 6, 11 ¬ during multiple days of sub-freezing weather.”



He stressed the importance of insulation in a home and noted “mobile homes are not known to be energy efficient.”



He said older space heaters can also use a lot of electricity and advised customers visit AP’s Web site - - www.alabamapower.com to get tips on how to keep out the cold, such as weather stripping and using an insulated wrap for their electric water heaters.



Murchison said rural customers on wells might not realize how cold the

underground water is as it comes into their heater and the electricity

needed to heat it up.



And with cold weather, both agreed, customers use more electricity even though you may heat with gas as central heating systems require a fan/blower to operate.



Sznajderman suggested customers, particularly those on fixed incomes, may want to consider signing up for the company’s budget billing program where their bill is averaged out per month by looking at their past usage pattern. Customers pay about the same each month and it is easier for those on fixed incomes with a household budget.



He further added that AP¹s rates are lower than the national average and, possibly because of this, Alabamians tend to use more electricity than individuals in many states with higher electric rates. He said the company is encouraging customers to become more energy efficient, not only because it will help them save money, but because it also helps postpone the day when the company has to build expensive new plants to meet electricity demand. The costs of new plants, he noted, are ultimately borne by customers, too.



For consumers, at some point in the future they too should start seeing

additional benefits of the smart meters. In the future, customers will be able to use technology, such as special, programmable thermostats, linked to the smart meter to better control their power usage during the day, which can save them money. “A lot of us are headed in that direction, toward being more energy efficient and having greater control over usage,” Murchison said.



Sznajderman said, “While January 2010 power bills reflect record-setting usage by customers, they also reflect a rate reduction that took effect January 1. In fact, rates for all customers (residential, industrial, commercial) averaged about 10 percent lower this month, compared to January 2009. Rates for residential alone were down more than six percent.”



Customers having concerns should contact AP Customer Service at

1-800-245-2244 day or night.