Pacific Power picked Independence to launch its Oregon conversion to “smart meters” because the town in Polk County is striving to be a tech-savvy place. I went there Tuesday night to take in an event the power company put on, and I learned a couple of things.
So-called smart electric meters are coming to our houses and businesses in the mid-valley starting next month, whether anybody needs one or not.
Years ago, whenever the lights went out you were pretty much left in the dark where information was concerned. Now, Pacific Power does a good job keeping customers informed. But sometimes a little more detail would help.
There were some big holes in the news coverage of the new agreements to tear out four dams on the Klamath River. One was what we’re paying for this. And it was curious that for once nobody worried about carbon, the bogeyman of our age.
At the risk of getting on the wrong side of Leonardo DiCaprio, the Oscar-winning climate expert, I like to look at facts I can see. Like, for instance, utility bills.
How electricity is produced is not exactly at the top of my list of worries as I’m riding along and taking advantage of Orange County’s excellent bikeways. Still, I could not escape the news that Pacific Power and Portland General Electric had agreed to support a bill to stop selling coal-derived power in Oregon by […]
Trying to make money from its small hydropower generator, the city of Albany can’t seem to catch a break. Much of last year there was too little water to run the turbine, and now there is too much.
When Millersburg voters decide whether to authorize their city of 1,500 to borrow $40 million, chances are they’ll face a question more pointed than the one the city council approved on July 14.
Pacific Power customers in the city of Albany have been paying 5 percent of their light bills to the city government for years, and they’ll pay 7 percent starting now. The city council Wednesday adopted an ordinance to that effect, brushing aside objections from Councilor Rich Kellum that an “emergency clause” was not justified in […]
Puzzled by what new meter says
Pacific Power left a door hanger inviting me to “meet your new smart meter… Go ahead: Take a look.” So I did. And now I wish that along with the door hanger, the installer had left instructions on what the readouts on the meter mean.
Tags: Pacific Power, smart meters