ST. LOUIS — Spring storm season is here. When winds pick up and lightning strikes, often times power outages follow. Ameren Missouri is hoping new technology will speed up the process of bringing homes back online when the power goes out.
You probably won't notice the new hardware on your meter box, the smart tech looks very similar to the old version, but the new and improved reader will alert Ameren the next time your power goes out.
"With a traditional meter, the customer sees that they are out of power and then they call in the outage," Ameren Director of Distribution Operating Lucas Klein said. "Then our team reports that outage for us to respond to."
The new meters eliminate the middle men and expedite the service. Smart meters relay information immediately back to a central hub when outages happen.
The key design element isn't in one single line of communication, but many. "These smart switches talk to one another," Klein said. "They determine whether there is an alternate path for that power to get to customers around the damage."
The new smart meters can't fix damage, but can streamline the repair process. Information about how many homes are offline and where the failures are located, is transmitted directly to Ameren. With the data, teams are able to focus on specific areas for damage repair.
Klein said even if the Smart meters can't patch the problem, they still speed up service. "We are able to send our crews out to repair damage and not have to first check to see if the outage is real and where the outage is."