The city’s move toward placing an advanced metering system into Longmont’s homes and businesses begins Monday, Oct. 3 and Tuesday, Oct. 4, with the installation at 20 sites near the Longmont Service Center.
The rest of the first phase of installation is scheduled to begin in late October.
Citywide installation of the new meters is part of Longmont Power and Communications advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI, project that is expected to begin in spring 2023. By the end of 2023 or early 2024, as many as 47,000 new AMI meters will be in place in Longmont, Scott Rochat, spokesman for LPC, said.
The $14 million project will deliver new meters that will read themselves for a few seconds every hour, capturing the energy use of a home or business more accurately than traditional hand-held meters, according to LPC. The units and their data also allow for greater energy efficiency, a faster response to outages and easier incorporation of distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar systems, LPC states.
“For 110 years, our community-owned power has helped Longmont’s home and businesses build a city we can all be proud of,” Interim LPC Executive Director Darrell Hahn. “Now, with these new meters, our community can take the next step into an exciting future.”
Critics, however, say the installation of AMI should be feared and not cheered. They claim the AMI system emits harmful radiation which is a danger to humans and other life.
The AMI units are also fire hazards that have not been cleared by some scientists and others for everyday use, Doe Kelly, a Longmont resident and harsh and persistent critic of AMIs, said.
“I continue to think that problems with security, fires, human health and declining pollinators, ought to be obvious enough to anyone, that the Precautionary Principle should be adopted and the AMI for Longmont ought to be brought to a halt,” Kelly said via email. “But that is just me, a person with direct experience of EMS (electromagnetic sensitivity) aka (electrohypersensitivity) aka “microwave sickness.”
The city has not adequately informed residents of the dangers of AMI technology, especially for the elderly, the ill, the genetically and/or immunologically challenged, children and fetuses, Kelly said.
“How is it that a city can roll out a controversial technology and not adequately educate the public on its pros and cons?” Kelly said.
AMI supporters say the technology is used in other cities and helps conserve energy while identifying changes in energy demand and conducting needed upgrades. The result is cleaner and more reliable energy, City Councilor Marcia Martin said.
“The largest contributor to climate change is burning fossil fuels,” Martin recently wrote in a letter to the Longmont Leader. “Energy from sun and wind is free but harnessing it isn’t. To clean our air and calm our weather, we must transition to renewable energy now. AMI is Longmont's next step toward a more sustainable future.”
The first group of installation will help ensure that LPC is taking advantage of all opportunities to perform the work efficiently and well, Hahn said.
“It also helps us get a good start before winter hits, so that when construction resumes in the spring, we can hit the ground running,” he said.
The new meters will be installed at no cost to the customer.
LPC states that some of the new capabilities that will be gradually deployed over approximately the next three years include:
• Electric Outage Detection: Smart meters will report any power outages to LPC’s Operations center within seconds, allowing crews to begin restoring service more quickly.
• Potential New Rate Programs: The new meters could allow LPC to offer lower rates for off-peak consumption, such as an electric vehicle owner who recharges their car overnight.
- Reduction in Field Trips: LPC can readily accommodate move-ins and move-outs by turning electric service on or off in seconds, saving the hundreds of trips that are currently required for manual turn-ons and turn-offs. Since electric crews won’t need to travel to the site, that also reduces Longmont’s greenhouse gas emissions.
• Energy Awareness: LPC staff will be able to help customers see their consumption hour-by-hour, allowing them to make more energy-efficient choices than would be possible with the current monthly report. The City has contracted with Landis+Gyr to supply the new meters and with Aclara to install them.
Customers who wish to opt-out and receive a new hand-read meter instead may do so, but will pay an installation cost and an added charge each month to help defray the cost of a meter reader, and will not be able to take advantage of some of the enhancements that the new meters provide.
A link to the opt-out form can be found online at LPC’s AMI page, www.longmontcolorado.gov/AMI.
Residents with questions about the project can call LPC at 303-651-8386.
