From today's EEI newsletter:
Prepaid Electricity Latest Trend in Utility Service Marketing
A growing number of utilities have begun experimenting with prepaid electricity accounts, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Proponents said prepaid accounts help customers keep track of their usage and encourage conservation.
Salt River Project, which runs the largest prepaid program in the country, said its prepaid customers have seen a 12-percent reduction in average bills from conservation. Some critics said the accounts could lead to abrupt shutoffs if the account runs out of money. Currently six utilities are experimenting with prepaid programs, but that could increase quickly if Texas utility regulators move this summer to allow it there.
Wrote the newspaper: "Experimentation with prepaid-service meters is part of a broader trend that is changing the electric meter from a dumb recorder of kilowatt hours consumed into a conservation tool capable of helping people monitor their use and which will allow utilities to talk directly to customers. Billions of dollars are being spent by utilities to install advanced meters that track the amount of energy consumed at different times of the day, a capability that is expected to lead to rate plans that include higher prices when wholesale energy costs are higher and cheaper prices at times of slack demand."
Wall Street Journal , June 19.
Anything that helps conserve energy sounds like a good idea to me these days.
1 comment:
Oh, dear! As a student in England in the early 70's I stayed in a flat with only a gas heater, which worked only with sufficient coins put in the meter.
If you ran out of coins, no heat, no cooking.
I had the money, but not the coins, so I had some very cold nights in that flat that winter.
The only unlimited hot water was in the shared bathroom. Then again, I can't actually recall whether there was a metered heater for the water....
Memories! and the passage of decades....
jawbone
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