Confession time—I’m one of the people who stood in line outside an Apple store to get one of the first iPhones. Super nerdy, I know. But, in all fairness, the iPhone absolutely revolutionized how people use their phones. Still, that first iPhone would probably feel pretty clunky compared to today’s technology.
That’s kind of how technology works. Occasionally you get things that are revolutionary, but you more frequently have to upgrade your devices to keep from falling behind. This is where we find ourselves with our metering system.
Since 2008, we have been operating an automated metering system that used the power lines to communicate with the cooperative. When we installed this technology, it absolutely revolutionized how we do business because we no longer needed to manually read meters and we had much more data about energy usage flowing through our meters. However, that technology has become old and outdated, and it no longer plays nice with many of our other systems. It is increasingly expensive to maintain and has become a major limiting factor in modernizing the service we provide to you.
That’s why we are replacing our entire metering system over the next two years. The new system uses wireless technology to communicate with the cooperative.
Our new metering system will have many benefits for you. Here are a few highlights:
1. These meters can communicate with the cooperative even when we don’t have power because they communicate wirelessly instead of over the power lines. This means that when your power goes out, your meter is going to let us know so we can dispatch crews even faster and get you up and running without you even having to call us.
2. The new meters give us a communication network throughout our system that will help us identify hazards and catch them before they become outages, which will increase your electric reliability.
3. This system is capable of real-time data reporting that will improve what data you can access about your electric usage in SmartHub.
4. Upgrading our system now sets us up to incorporate future advancements in grid-related technology.
We’re clearly very excited to get the new system up and running. We’ve been operating on an iPhone 1 for long enough and we look forward to using this new technology to continue to improve your service experience.
Video Update May 2024
Cherryland’s Metering System Upgrades
Thank you for keeping your users updated on the power distribution system. Looking toward the future technology and investing in improvements not more management people. Keep up the good communications and work.
Thanks, Mark. Technology is quickly evolving and driving change in our industry. We’ll continue to try to keep ahead of those trends.
I had the first mac plus computer in Michigan, the first bag phone, the first Geo- thermal heating and cooling system in Michigan and a 6 month 6 million contract with Detroit Edison for Geo-thermal the first, E F a Kell ( furnace damper shut-off). the first direct vent fireplace. any questions oh yes and the first cell blocker in America. any questions…
I remember when my dad had a bag phone. We thought it was the coolest thing ever. He never took it out of his car. It’s amazing how that technology has changed in such a relatively short amount of time.
Thank you for the update. One thing you did not mention was the cost of this new system and how it would be accounted for? I have to believe that there should be quite an offset in what the new system could do versus what the old one did just the same as there had to have been an offset when you didn’t have to physically, send people out to read meters in any longer. Again, thank you for your information.
Good question, Christine. You’re correct when we first moved from manually-read to automated meters back in the mid-2000s we were able to offset the cost of the metering system with the shortened billing cycle it enabled and the ability to eliminate staff driving around reading meters. Unfortunately, this system won’t give us those efficiency gains because we’ve already got them. It will make us more efficient in outage situations because we can more quickly evaluate when the power goes out and who is affected from our office. We will also see savings from meter failures which have increased substantially on our old system. The total cost of this metering replacement is about $8 million and that cost will be capitalized and depreciated over the life of the system.
Thank you for being proactive, and for keeping Cooperative members informed of your plans. We appreciate Cherryland Electric Cooperative!
Thanks, Pamela. We try.
It sounds expensive. Given recent rate increases and fees I do not support this decision or the additional EMFs it will expose customers to. You will need to give a lot more information regarding how this actually benefits the customer, since we are the ones paying for it.
Hi Joan,
The new metering system is about an $8 million investment. In general, we invest $10 – $12 million into our system annually. These investments are how we keep the system reliable. They include everything from rebuilding old power lines to putting lines underground to adding in more system control devices that let us isolate and fix outages quicker. While I respect the concern over rates, none of these investments are frivolous. They are just the cost of doing business and, as our rates reflect, the cost of doing business has gone up. If inflation and interest rates persist, that is likely to continue. That said, stopping investment in our system to control costs would just result in more outages and less reliability. Regarding the timing of the replacement of the metering system, as I mention in the column, the old one has become woefully outdated and is starting to fail regularly. We spent several years evaluating options and ultimately decided that it’s time for us to replace it with the newest technology. Thanks for your comment.
While we understand the cost of everything going up and upgrading, we also need to know the bottom line, Rachel. What is the average cost per month and year going to be for customers? Thank you
Hi – This technology gets depreciated over 15 years which lets us make sure that the members who are using it are paying for it, rather than having today’s members pay 100% of it up front. Based on that depreciation schedule, the new metering system will cost about $1.15/meter/month. That isn’t all “new” cost. Our analysis of the costs of continuing to band-aid together our old system showed it would cost our members about half of that if we kept the old system. And, we would have the added costs of system inefficiency and limitations of the old metering technology being incompatible with other technology on our system. So, if you account for the assumed costs of the old system versus the projected cost of the new system, it ends up being around $0.65/meter/member to have a new, more advanced metering system versus maintaining an old, outdated metering system. As far as rates going forward, that is a much more complex analysis of all of our costs, but do keep in mind that we factored this project into the rate increase we implemented this year.
Will these new meters be used to control usage like the digital currency is expected to do? Government will decide if you are worthy. And how much you can have!
No, we will not use the meters to control usage. They will simply give members more data to modify their own usage should they choose to. Any load control programs we might roll out in the future will be voluntary.
Great to see that you are doing necessary equipment upgrades and replacements. People often assume that keeping old equipment running longer is always the least expensive option, but it is often not the case. I’m guessing the new meters will provide many new capabilities for managing costs such as providing information for load shifting for people who charge electric cars, or can pre-cooling buildings. Great to see that our Coop is doing the right thing for our members.
You are absolutely correct. The new system will support future demand management programs we might offer. And, as you point out, there is a cost to not upgrading as well. As I mention in my video, it’s kind of like an old car. At some point the cost of frequent repairs outweighs the cost of replacing the car.
You say “These meters can communicate with the cooperative even when we don’t have power because they communicate wirelessly instead of over the power lines.” Wireless communications still require power. What supplies the power when the line power goes out? Are they backed up by a battery, internal to the meter? If so, how long do these batteries last? Will the meter automatically check the battery and notify the cooperative when the battery needs replacement?
Hi Mel – Great question! The circuit board of the meter has a built in battery that is just strong enough to power the communications (not the meter). In the event the meter loses power, the battery powers it while it let’s us know what is going on. The battery system is designed to last more than 15 years and the meter regularly runs its own diagnostics and alerts us if anything (including the battery) is failing so we can send one of our techs out to look at it.
How does the system work areas with no wifii?
Hi Kathy,
We have installed communication towers throughout our system so we know we have communication coverage. If by chance there is a home or business that just doesn’t have good connectivity with one of those communication towers, the metering system we chose has the ability to piggy back communications on a nearby meter. So, essentially, meter 1 would communicate to meter 2 and then meter 2 would communicate to us. That’s unlikely to be necessary based on our modeling and the coverage we get from our towers, but something we are prepared for should it occur. Thanks for the question!
If I had to guess, the meters use a communication technology called LoRaWAN which is a very low powered, long range wide area network. This is a common technology used in industry to communicate small amounts of information over long distances. My business uses this to communicate temperature, humidity, light and soil moisture readings from greenhouses and farm fields to our grower computers. Very inexpensive, reliable and safe. Most importantly, batteries last 10 to 15 years because they use very low power and only turn on to communicate periodically when needed.
We signed on with Cherryland because of the hardwire tech, what about the customers that don’t want wireless frequencies emanating through their home 24/7?
Hi CB – Unfortunately, we can’t promise that we’ll keep any technology on our system forever. The power-line carrier meters have become old and outdated and its time to replace them with newer technology. The radio frequency emitted by the meter is quite low. You could stand directly in front of the meter 24/7 for a full year and have less RF exposure than you get from a single 15-minute phone call. I understand that may not be low enough to alleviate your concerns, if you would like to discuss it in greater detail please call our member services department at (231) 486-9200.
Fantastic communication method and delivery. You message is spot and and delivered professionally and succinctly! Thank you Rachel for keeping us informed and up to date and with the latest technology!