National Grid is implementing new ways for customers to control their energy usage. At the company’s “demo house,” workers showcased a new app that provides information on power usage within a home. Mike Mokey, National Grid’s head of advanced metering infrastructure for New York, explained that the app can track individual appliances and identify phantom power, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of a home’s energy usage. This invisible energy usage often goes unnoticed by customers, who may think they have turned off devices but are still drawing power.
This new technology is part of National Grid’s installation of smart meters, with 170,000 already installed in Onondaga and Cortland counties. The installation process is expanding to the Mohawk Valley, Oswego, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence counties, followed by the Capital Region and western New York. In total, about 1.6 million electric meters will be replaced. Alberto Bianchetti, the regional director of external and customer affairs for National Grid, mentioned that the smart meters will eventually be able to alert the company in case of a power outage.
Furthermore, National Grid has been conducting outreach to educate customers about the new meters. Customers will receive a 60-day notice before the installation in their area, followed by more information a week before the installation. The installation process itself will only disrupt power for approximately five minutes. Bianchetti emphasized that the transition to smart meters is seamless for customers. National Grid anticipates that customers with smart meters will be able to utilize the tracking technology later this year.