Outage Map
CEC’s Meter Inspections Help Save Money While Staying Safe
By Brent ten Pas
Central Electric Cooperative Field Services Specialist Dane Mayer inspects 150 to 500 electric meters daily, depending on whether he is in a rural or more suburban area.
On this spring morning, Dane drives through a mixture of settings. Following a predetermined route, where members have received timely notifications in advance, he works his way up easement roads and long driveways or walks from house to house to systematically inspect 1 meter at a time. By day’s end, his meter count is 176.
The most common violations Dane finds are inaccessible properties, meters not properly affixed to houses, broken or cut rings, or meters obstructed by hedges, bushes, trees, or debris, which prevent him from inspecting them.
Equipped with an iPad, Dane documents each meter’s reading. If everything looks good, he notes it. Otherwise, Dane takes a photo of any violations and uploads it to the member’s account. CEC then sends a letter asking the member to take action to correct the violation, giving them a reasonable time to do so.
The inspections are part of the cooperative’s effort to visually examine nearly 40,000 meters throughout its 5,300-square-mile service territory annually—a daunting but achievable goal through Dane’s efforts, in addition to those of an outside contract inspector. The program is in its second year.
“Safety is the most significant benefit of this inspection effort,” says Ryan Davies, CEC vice president of customer and energy services. “Ensuring the co-op’s equipment is properly installed, secured, and free from obstruction is the highest priority.”
Before CEC converted its members in 2012 to advanced metering infrastructure meters, which electronically communicate energy use data to the co-op, the old meters underwent visual inspections monthly.
“The AMI system has proven exceptionally accurate and created significant cost savings for members once installed,” Ryan says. “What was lost, however, was having a routine presence on-site to inspect members’ meters.”
While CEC’s customer service policy states the co-op’s employees and contract personnel can access its equipment on a member’s property anytime, CEC goes to great lengths to educate members about this policy and notify them in advance when inspections will occur.
“We try to inform our members through various means, including Ruralite, the website, and bill inserts,” Ryan says.
“Then, as the inspection date draws near, we inform the member we will be in their neighborhood using emails and automated calls.”
Besides locked gates, loose and aggressive dogs are the biggest deterrents to accessing some properties. For the safety of CEC personnel, the co-op continues to encourage members to keep their dogs indoors or secured during the inspection period.
Sometimes, however, it is not a dog that poses a threat but a resident.
Dane shares an experience from last year. He pulled up to a member’s property, wearing CEC logoed clothes and driving a CEC-labeled truck. The individual challenged Dane being on the property and told him to leave, even after Dane patiently explained why he was there. He provided his coop business card, but that wasn’t good enough. The individual demanded that Dane show his driver’s license.
“Then there were like 3 people surrounding me, a 3-on-1 type situation,” Dane says. “When I left, they followed me out to the truck and took pictures of my license plate on my vehicle.”
Though an anomaly, the incident highlights a degree of unpredictability Dane faces when trying to do his job.
The education and notifications are working. More CEC members are updating their contact information to help prevent communication from falling through the cracks. They are also leaving their gates open during the time frame notified, providing gate codes in advance, or if it is a padlocked gate, switching to combination or multiple padlock locking devices to ensure access.
These efforts help ensure more efficient use of everyone’s time and CEC’s resources, preventing the need to schedule a specific date and time, which can often change due to unforeseen circumstances.
Dane says he has noticed much better results so far this year.
“Last year, almost every 4th meter inspected appeared to have obstruction problems, a missing seal, or another issue,” he says.
CEC and its members are jointly improving the inspection process, 1 electric meter at a time.