Atlantic City Electric Promises Smart Energy Network Rollout Will Shorten Outages
New Jersey-based Atlantic City Electric received approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to move forward with a $212 million project to develop and expand its Smart Energy Network. The project, which involves network upgrades and replacing 560,000 meters with smart meters, is expected to increase outage restoration speed by improving the utility’s ability to identify the cause and location of outages.
Details of the Smart Energy Network Deployment
Atlantic City Electric plans to kick off its Smart Energy Network initiative around the middle of 2022, and the deployment is expected to take about 2 years to complete. From the customer perspective, there are pros and cons.
On the plus side, in addition to the expectation that average outage durations will decrease, the smart meters should make it easier for customers to track energy use. The main downside is that there will be an increase to electric bills ($4.27 extra per month on average, offset by $415 million in customer and operational benefits). Overall, I believe the pros far outweigh the cons.
Atlantic City Electric is just the latest New Jersey electric utility to launch a smart meter initiative. For example, the state’s largest utility, Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G), received approval for a 4-year, $700 million project to install 2.3 million smart meters. Additionally, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has a $418 million initiative for 1.1 million smart meters currently being considered by regulators. And in 2019, Rockland Electric installed 73k smart meters at a cost of just under $14 million.
Overall, the trend in New Jersey mirrors what is happening elsewhere in the U.S. According to Navigant Consulting, the number of smart meters in operation is predicted to increase by over 66%, from 92.1 million in 2019 to 138.4 million in 2028.
From an emergency preparedness perspective, Atlantic City Electric’s Smart Energy Network initiative is welcomed and appreciated. It will definitely help.
