The Chicago Tribune reports that Commonwealth Edison next month will begin installing smart meters in businesses and homes in La Grange, IL.
Residents refusing the devices will be charged on a monthly basis. The story says that the meters enable customers to view their usage and, by radio frequency signals, send that data to ComEd and report outages.
The drive to deploy the meters and otherwise modernization the system began in 2011 when Energy Modernization Act was approved by the Illinois General Assembly, the story said. That provided $2.6 billion during a ten-year period for the modernization. The story says that part of the plan is the replacement of 4 million meter in all homes and businesses in the northern part of the state.
In January, The Long Beach Post reported that smart gas meters are being deployed in Long Beach and Signal Hill. The goal is to generate efficiencies and eliminate monthly meter reading visits to homes and businesses.