South Plains Electric Cooperative will be replacing all meters during a five-year replacement project. This is necessary because our meters, which use 25-year-old technology, are no longer being manufactured and we will not be able to service or maintain them in future years.
We’ve chosen a proven system that will offer many advantages, including remote disconnect/reconnect, better outage detection, “blink” troubleshooting, meter tampering detection and eventually the ability for members to remotely view and manage their usage details. The name of the system is Gridstream.
Main features of the system will be:
-
Reduce the number of cooperative vehicles on the road, saving fuel and time.
-
Detect and pinpoint electricity theft.
-
Produce valuable data to help member services work with individual members to lower kWh consumption.
-
Ensure efficient and effective investments in new power lines, substations, etc.
-
Reduce line losses.
-
Better data will help SPEC proactively prevent outages and monitor low voltage scenarios.
-
Ability for queries will speed restoration.
-
Member location transfers and connects/disconnects can be processed in real time.
-
Are integrated with member service, billing, engineering, and outage computer systems.
-
Communicate with substation equipment over the radio frequency network.
-
Are secure.
-
Provide greater privacy by eliminating most on-premises visits.
South Plains Electric is confident the new Gridstream meters are safe and will offer enormous benefits for both the members and the Cooperative. However, some members may still have concerns based on rumors or information in the media. Seemingly legitimate, but unscientific and unsupported, criticisms or claims have raised concerns about privacy and/or health. You can read more about how we are protecting our members here: Privacy & Health Concerns.
We do offer a meter option for members not wanting the new Gridstream meter installed. For more information, click here: Gridstream Meter Opt-Out Option.
