ComEd brings Smart Meters to Joliet, other area towns

JOLIET – The Smart Meters are coming.

ComEd will start installing digital meters – the new way to measure how much electricity homeowners use – in July in Joliet, Plainfield, New Lenox and Frankfort. The Smart Meters replace the standard analog meters homeowners now have. ComEd began installing them in 2012.

The digital meters, equipped with computer chips, are designed to read electricity use more accurately and deliver the information more quickly, making individual household data available for the homeowner to examine on the ComEd website daily,

Homeowners will get a heads-up beforehand, ComEd Vice President Mike McMahon said last week during a presentation on the program to the Joliet City Council.

The installation program in Joliet will continue into 2018, so not everyone is going to see a Smart Meter installer show up next month.

But some people should be getting notice soon, if not already.

McMahon said ComEd will send a postcard to the home 60 days before the installer arrives and follow that up with a letter 30 days before installation. Then a phone call will be made 10 days before a ComEd installer arrives.

Not everyone has to take a Smart Meter, McMahon said.

“Some folks do refuse the meter,” he said. “They are able to do that. They don’t need any reason to refuse the meter.”

Almost everyone is taking them, however. ComEd has installed more than 3 million Smart Meters since 2012, McMahon said. Less than 1 percent of those slated to get them have said no.

McMahon advised people to ensure that the installer arriving at the door is from ComEd. The installer will have a badge for identification, he said.

“We encourage all the residents to ask to see the badge,” he said. “If the person at the door cannot produce the badge, close the door and call the police.”

ComEd apparently is anticipating the possibility of imposters posing as installers, because McMahon noted some things a Smart Meter installer won’t be doing.

“We will never ask for money,” he said. “If the person at the door asks for money, close the door and call the police.”

If your meter now is outside the house, there is no reason for the installer to come inside. McMahon said. There are some buildings, particularly apartment buildings, where the meters are inside, and the installer needs to get inside to replace the old meter, he said. While Smart Meter installation is not mandatory, there eventually will be a premium charged for continued use of the old meters, McMahon said, because the analog meters require someone to come to the house and read them.

External Affairs Manager Jeff Hettrick said ComEd is trying to time installations with customer billing cycles.

“We want time to make sure all communication links are correct so we don’t have to switch over at a bill time,” Hettrick said in an email. “This ensures that we have accurate bills using meter readings and we do not have to estimate.”