Progress Energy to spend 140 million for automated digital meters

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - The meter reader traipsing through your yard could soon become as obsolete as the milkman and door-to-door salesman.

Progress Energy said it plans to spend $140 million to install 2.6 million automated digital meters for electricity customers in the Carolinas and Florida. The new meters will include radio transmitters that allow them to be read remotely from a vehicle being driven down the street.

The switch, scheduled to begin later this year in the Triangle, will allow meter readers for the Raleigh-based utility to get information on 10,000 meters a day, up from a current daily total of 400.

The upgrade will result in the elimination of about 360 meter-reader jobs in the Carolinas and Florida, including 200 outside contractors in the Carolinas.

"It's going to save man-hours, truck-hours," said spokeswoman Julie Hans. "We can read more meters with fewer employees."

In an attempt to cut costs, utilities have been making the transition from traditional meters with spinning dials to digital meters for the past five years.

Progress Energy is also in the midst of a companywide reorganization this year that will cut 450 positions, not counting meter readers, through early retirements and possible layoffs.

The company will keep about 50 meter readers in the Carolinas and 20 in Florida. They will carry on what's left of their tradition from the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle, eliminating such occupational hazards as dog bites, bee stings and sunburn.

The 18-month installation will save $24 million annually in labor and related costs, the company said. Progress Energy plans to start installing the new meters in Florida in June, and in the Carolinas in September.

Changing the meters will require Progress Energy to briefly cut power to each customer.

The digital meters, which lack dials, will also help prevent meter tampering, Hans said. Last year the company caught more than $5 million in meter theft and tampering, she said.

Not all of Progress Energy's 2.9 million customers will have their meters replaced. Industrial and commercial customers are on special meters that can't be digitized at this time, Hans said.