Will your New Jersey home get a smart meter? Millions of people in the state who are customers of PSE&G, Jersey Central Power & Light and Rockland Electric have already had these meters installed in their homes, and millions more may purchase them in the coming years.
JCP&L is the latest company to receive approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to perform smart meter installations.
The company’s $400 million plan to install the smart meters for 1.1 million of its customers in New Jersey was approved in March 2023. A majority of JCP&L customers will receive the meters by 2026, the utility said.
Where are smart meters installed?
Smart meters installed in a pilot program by Rockland Electric in 2018 will now be installed by PSE&G in a $700 million New Jersey-wide program.
JCP&L serves customers in Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties. Estimated installation dates for several New Jersey counties are listed on the website.
FirstEnergy Corp. operates as a subsidiary of JCP&L and has installed 2.7 million smart meters, including in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where the company said efforts are nearing completion.
Customers must receive information about installation one month in advance.
PSE&G received approval from the BPU in January 2021 for a $700 million meter installation for its 2.3 million customers. Over the course of four years, 353,000 customers in Bergen County, 174,000 in Passaic County, 354,000 in Essex County and 74 in Morris County will have smart meters.
PSE&G announced that most customers should have installations by the end of 2024, but will continue to install them through 2025. The company said people will receive a letter before PSE&G workers replace the existing electric meter.
Rockland Electric was early on the digital meter trend in New Jersey. The company installed the state’s first smart meters in Mahwah in 2018.
What is a smart meter?
The digital electric meter collects electricity usage information for billing purposes and sends that data to the local utility company via a telecommunications link, JCP&L said.
Meter readings are automated, so this would eliminate the need for personal meter readers, the company said.
PSE&G said the smart meter should establish a two-way communication system between customers and the company.
Some of the benefits of a smart meter, PSE&G said, include more accurate real-time meter readings, the availability of better electricity usage information for customers, real-time detection of power outages, more efficient power restoration and the elimination of estimated electric bills.
Can customers unsubscribe from smart meters?
JCP&L said customers can opt out of receiving a smart meter, but they will have to pay a $15 monthly fee, which the company calls a “meter reading fee.” The company said it can answer questions and talk to customers at 855-344-3400.
PSE&G customers can opt out by calling 908-325-4020, but will be charged a $12 monthly fee.
Customer concerns about smart meters
Interest groups and residents remain wary of the new meters, with violation of privacy being a priority.
The American Civil Liberties Union has branches in several states, such as Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington, where the groups oppose data collection in smart meters.
An ACLU consultant, Jay Stanley, spoke to NorthJersey.com in 2018 about how energy companies could extract data about the appliances around someone’s home.
“Even sex toys. Anything that plugs into a wall socket to charge can be identified. There is evidence that they can tell what devices you have, what kind of television programs you watch, because each program has a unique light and dark pattern” , Stanley said in 2018.
In 2020, New Jersey Assemblyman Ronald Dancer, R-Burlington, proposed a bill that would limit energy companies’ access to customer data.
“This technology has raised privacy concerns because the information collected by smart meters contains unencrypted data that can reveal when a homeowner is away from home for an extended period of time,” the bill states.
Dancer said: “The information collected by smart meters can also decipher what types of activities a customer is engaged in, such as watching television, using a computer or how long someone is cooking.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: What are smart meters? A look at the installation in New Jersey
