Farmington Electric Utility System upgrading meters
FARMINGTON, N.M. - The Farmington Electric Utility System is improving its services to customers throughout San Juan County. FEUS will be upgrading electric meters in its entire service area by replacing them with enhanced meters. Enhanced meters are digital electric meters that communicate basic energy usage through a secure wireless network. The upgrade comes at no additional cost to customers.
FEUS director Hank Adair explained the benefits of the new meters, "Enhanced meters empower the customer by providing them with real-time access to their usage data. The meters improve reliability so the customer has fewer outages. When outages do occur, response and restoration will happen quicker because FEUS will also have real-time information to locate and troubleshoot the issue.” Although FEUS will be alerted through the system about outages, they encourage customers to continue to call with information that may be helpful in troubleshooting issues. “We still want to hear from customers when they know of or witnessed something specific to an outage,” said Adair. “For example, if a customer hears a loud pop in their backyard and the power goes out, we’d want them to call and report such. This type of information helps us identify outage issues.”
Each meter replacement will take approximately 1 to 5 minutes. Residents do not need to be home during the installation as long as workers can access the meter. If access is not available, workers will leave a door hanger requesting the customer to schedule an appointment.
FEUS anticipates the entire upgrade project will take about six years to complete. This includes customer meter replacement and equipment upgrades to the service side.
For additional information about the project and enhanced meters, please visit fmtn.org/feus.