Puerto Rico’s 1.5 million smart meter replacement get go ahead

Puerto Rico utility Luma’s smart meters will replace the almost 1.5 million meters that were damaged by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

The programme, which was announced in September, has now been approved, with the allocation of over $786 million by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as part of its accelerated awards strategy for the authority.

An advanced metering infrastructure should improve the operation of the electricity system, as well as the metrics and situational awareness of the company and customers to address security issues and irregular situations during future weather events.

Other benefits anticipated include faster service response and restoration times, support for new energy savings and efficiency programmes and more accurate invoicing and billing control.

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“The acquisition of these meters represents a significant step in the quality of electrical service for subscribers in Puerto Rico, even more so when they will provide transparency in electrical readings and greater security in the event of atmospheric events,” says Manuel A. Laboy Rivera, executive director of the Puerto Rico government’s Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3).

“These are issues that residents of Puerto Rico have historically demanded and that, consequently, are being addressed through this project that is being developed after a substantial allocation of funds from FEMA.”

The smart meter rollout is expected to get under way by the summer of 2024 and to extend over three years.

Text messaging for customer information

The smart meter rollout forms part of Luma’s ‘Building a better energy future’ initiative, which was launched in September focused on improving system reliability and customer support services.

A second major announcement is the introduction of text messaging service to provide customers with updates on reported service outages and bill-related requests as well as progress on the ‘Building a better energy future’ initiative.

Some other recent updates the company has reported include the installation of over 1,200 automated devices on the network as part of an over 5,000 device rollout by July 2024 and the repair and replacement of over 1,000 poles across the island to strengthen the system as part of a 100,000 light pole renovation in the next five years.

In addition reconstruction was begun of three substations to improve the reliability and resilience of the service. The goal is to modernise 50 existing substations and build six new substations in the next two years.

Vegetation also was cleared from over 300km of transmission and distribution lines across 59 municipalities, with a 26,000 km clearance target over the next three years.

In October, Luma also launched the Customer Battery Power Sharing Initiative as an emergency response programme to improve service reliability islandwide in Puerto Rico. So far, five service providers have joined the programme and over 1,700 customers have registered.