Whether you are in Round Rock, Hutto, Pflugerville, Taylor, or any of the deregulated electricity market surrounding these communities, I think you will find the posts on this blog will help you, over the long-term, to get the most for your money as you pay your electricity bill.

Most of the posts will be current news on the electricity market here in Texas.  We will also provide generic, not time specific, information related to utilities in Round Rock in general.   This type of information will include data on electricity meters, energy saving tips, etc.

So, without delay, our first post, on Smart Meters,  is below.   If you have any questions regarding the Round Rock utilities market don’t hesitate to give us a call at 512-827-8005.   We really like to help.

The New Smart Meters get a high grade in a survey.

The vast majority of smart meters installed in Texas are measuring and recording electric usage accurately, according to a state-ordered study.

Navigant Consulting, chosen in March to conduct the study for state regulators in response to complaints about the accuracy of the meters, tested 5,627 meters in use by CenterPoint Energy, Oncor and AEP Texas.

The company found that 99.96 percent of the smart meters tested were accurate.

“A success rate of 99.96 of advanced meters is much better than that of traditional meters,” said Terry Hadley, a spokesman for the Public Utility Commission.

The commission announced at a meeting last week that Oncor, CenterPoint Energy and AEP will not pass the cost of the study on to consumers, and indicated that the meter manufacturers will cover some or all of the cost, Hadley said.

Smart meters contain technology that provides real-time power-use information to electricity distributors and customers. Industry and government officials say the information allows customers to monitor their electric use more effectively, distribution companies to spot outages more precisely and electric retail providers to tailor rate plans to customers’ usage habits.

Despite the purported benefits, some lawmakers had raised concerns about the accuracy of the new meters as consumers complained of higher bills following installation of the new meters.

Houston-based CenterPoint, which distributes electricity to 2 million Houston-area customers regardless of which retailer sells them their electricity, praised the study.

Visit http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7136428.html for the entire story.