SWEPCO to instal 234,000 smart meters in Louisiana
Image: SWEPCO
Southwestern Electric Power Co (SWEPCO) is launching a two-year smart meter rollout programme for its customers in north and central Louisiana.
The rollout to the approximately 234,000 customers is set to begin in the Shreveport-Bossier City area in the northwest of Louisiana in October before moving south to Hornbeck and thereafter to other parts of SWEPCO’s Louisiana service territory.
The deployment of the smart meters, which will replace the now outdated current meters as part of the company’s grid modernisation, will continue across the state through 2025.
“Smart meters are part of SWEPCO’s ongoing commitment to help meet the evolving expectations and needs of our customers,” said Paul Pratt, director of Customer Services & Marketing.
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“Smart meters give our customers more control over their daily energy usage, can help create smart energy habits, aid in power restoration and they offer additional benefits of convenience.”
The rollout follows a pilot programme that began in late 2021 for 10,000 Bossier City customers and 2,000 Natchitoches area customers.
The smart meters will be funded through a monthly surcharge for customers. For residential customers the surcharge will be $3.24 per month for the first four years and $2.75 for the next four years, while for other rate classes such as commercial or industrial, it is $6.40 per month over four years.
Residential homeowners may, however, opt out from having a smart meter for a one-time cost and a recurring monthly fee towards the costs of sending out a meter reader.
The Louisiana smart meter rollout is SWEPCO’s second, with a 195,000 unit deployment underway for its customers in Texas.
The programme there was initiated with a pilot involving 10,000 customers in the Texarkana area in eastern Texas, with the wider deployment getting under way in 2022 and set to continue through 2024.
SWEPCO is a subsidiary of American Electric Power and serves a total of over 550,000 customers in Louisiana, Texas and western Arkansas.
