Your Meter Is About to Get Smarter

Get ready to say goodbye to your old meter. Your meter is about to get smarter with the implementation of Jackson EMC’s Smart Meter through our Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to monitor your home’s energy use remotely. Whether you have a dial or digital meter, monitoring your electric use is about all your current meter does. That’s about to change.

The Smart Meter goes beyond the basics of monitoring, allowing us to offer you a variety of new and future benefits to better serve you. There’s no additional charge or fee associated with resetting your new Smart Meter. In fact, you don’t have to be at home. If you’re at home, you may notice a brief interruption of power, which shouldn’t last more than a few minutes. We’ll notify you by mail in advance and leave a note on your door once your meter is reset. You can rely on us to continue delivering you reliable power at the flip of a switch, read your bills accurately and deliver your bills on time.

If you're a critical care customer or have special needs, please call us at 866-645-8605 to make arrangements.

By the end of 2009, we plan to install more than 60,000 Smart Meters, and will continue with installation over the next three years until all members receive a Smart Meter.

Benefits:

Current Smarter Meter Benefits:

• Remote access shows us if a power outage is related to Jackson EMC lines or something internal, such as a Main Circuit Breaker interruption before sending a crew to your home.
• We’ll help the environment and save gas by reducing the number of vehicles on the road now that in-person readings won’t be necessary.
• We’ll see many issues with your service or service area in advance and respond to them before you notice them, such as trees on power lines.
• We’ll also have the ability to troubleshoot energy usage questions from the office.
• Remote access allows us to determine which account is out of power when a member with multiple accounts calls in an outage.

Future Smart Meter Benefits:

• We’ll be able to determine if your power has been restored after an outage while the crew is still in the area.
• We’ll be able to offer additional benefits in the future such as hourly online energy usage information and service order response time reduction.
• Members can participate in load management through the remote system.
• Power outage notification will remotely alert us that your power is out.
  
  

What you should know about Jackson EMC's Smart Meter Program

When can I expect my Smart Meter upgrade?
Jackson EMC will begin implementation in 2009, and will upgrade 200,000+ meters over a three-year period. Installations will be done in various parts of our service territory. You’ll be notified prior to your meter upgrade.

How does the Smart Meter program work?
Your Smart Meter will send data remotely through a secure and protected signal to Tower Gateway Basestations (TGBs) on radio towers. Most of the meters talk directly to the TGBs, and meters that have difficulty talking to the TGBs will talk to a “buddy” meter and the “buddy” will forward the message to the TGB. The TGBs then send the data to Jackson EMC’s computer system.

Will someone be able to get my private information during the remote data transfer?
Your data and personal information are safe. Only your meter number and energy usage data are communicated over the radio towers.

Will I have to be at home when my meter is upgraded?
No. We’ll notify you by letter a few weeks before we come to upgrade your meter. Once we upgrade your meter, we’ll leave a note on your door.

Will there be an interruption in service during the installation?
If you’re at home during the upgrade, you will notice a brief power interruption that shouldn’t last more than a few minutes.

Will I be charged for the meter upgrade?
No. Resetting your Smart Meter is a free service and part of Jackson EMC’s technology upgrades.

How will I benefit from having a Smart Meter?
You’ll see current and future benefits through Smart Meter. Take a look at the benefits above.