AMI Meters
Macon Electric Cooperative replaced meters in the Fall of 2016. This project was necessary because our meters, which were using 15-year-old technology, were becoming obsolete. In the next few years, the cooperative would not be able to service or maintain them.
We have chosen a proven system that will offer many advantages, including remote disconnect/reconnect, better outage detection, “blink” troubleshooting, meter tampering detection, and eventually the ability for members to remotely view their own usage details. Main features of the system are:
- Reduce operating expenses, helping to keep rates low.
- Reduce the number of cooperative vehicles on the road, saving fuel and time.
- Detect and pinpoint electricity theft.
- Produce valuable data to help member services work with individual members to lower kWh consumption.
- Remove guesswork from designing electrical facilities.
- Ensure efficient and effective investments in new power lines, substations, etc.
- Reduce line loss.
- Increase reliability and customer service.
- Better data will help MEC proactively prevent outages.
- Ability for queries will speed restoration.
- Member location transfers and connects/disconnects can be processed in real time.
These digital meters are integrated with customer service, billing, engineering, and outage computer systems. They are secure and provide greater privacy by eliminating most on-premises visits.
Summary:
We are confident that the new meters MEC has selected will offer enormous benefits for both the members and the cooperative. However, some members may still have concerns based on rumors or information in the media. Seemingly legitimate but unscientific and unsupported criticisms or claims have raised concerns about privacy and/or health. You can read more about that here: Privacy.pdf & Health Concerns.pdf .