Ohio residents may soon be paying an extra 49 cents a month on their energy bills for a new service before it is fully implemented across the state.
Duke Energy will be launching its new "smart meters" in Oxford Tuesday before any other community according to Johanna Reeder, media relations representative for Duke Energy.
The smart meters, which will be fully installed in Oxford by March 2010, are a new form of technology being pushed by Duke.
"(The technology) sends information both ways," said Paige Layne, Duke Energy spokeswoman. "In one word, I'd call it conversation."
The new smart meters will notify Duke when the power goes out in a certain area - something the current meters can't do. Layne said customers currently have to call Duke Energy to let the company know about power outages.
According to Layne, the smart grids will actually talk with each other when there's a power issue in the new system.
"When there's a problem on the line, the new equipment can automatically re-route the power to avoid more power outages," Layne said. "We call it self-healing."
In addition to communication between meters and the power company, Layne said Duke's new smart grids will also include the customers in their conversation.
Currently, customers only see the bottom-line number on their utility bills, but they will know how that bill is broken down with the new smart grid technology.
According to Layne, a customer's bill will show how much it costs to charge iPods, heat or cool homes and run the washing machine, among other things once the smart meters are fully functioning.
Layne said this new billing technique, which Duke hopes to begin at the end of the smart grid's five-year deployment plan, will also help the environment.
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"It will allow customers to make wiser energy decisions," Layne said.
According to Layne, when customers save money they're also saving energy.
Initially, the smart grids will cost consumers an extra 49 cents per month, Layne said. After that, costs may fluctuate.
"It all depends on how much we're spending so we'd have to calculate that every year," Layne said.
There have been some critics of the launch plan for the new smart grid technology.
Among the opposition is Anthony Rodriguez, public information specialist with the Ohio Consumers' Counsel.
"We didn't really agree with the fact that there were some elements in Duke's plan that they didn't lay out clearly," Rodriguez said.
According to Rodriguez, although the Ohio Consumers' Counsel didn't sign the settlement it does support the concept of the smart grid.
"We just didn't sign because of the lack of an outline for when consumers are going to start seeing these upgrades that they're paying for," Rodriguez said.
According to Layne, payments of 49 cents per month would start immediately, but the customer advantages probably wouldn't start until the end of the five-year launch.
The new technology was approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) in December 2008, according to Duke spokeswoman Sally Thelen. She said Duke is waiting for PUCO to approve Duke's cost recovery plan to begin implementing the technology.
"They're on their own timetable," Reeder said. "We're hoping it will be (approved) before the end of 2009, but that's up to the commission."
It seems most people, including the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, support the new technology.
"At the end of the day, the smart grid is a good thing," Rodriguez said. "And it's going to provide a 21st century electric system."
Editor's Note: The story originally said the new technology has yet to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The error has been corrected in this version of the article.
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