Building a smarter grid

June 17 2019, 11:48 AM

Building a smarter grid

As the energy industry continues to transform and diversify, New Brunswickers will have more choices on how they use energy to power their lives. Customer expectations are changing. To keep pace, we are changing too.

Today, we are building the power grid we need tomorrow - a modern digital energy network that will:

• give New Brunswickers more options for saving money, time and electricity
• communicate with us so we can respond to outages more quickly
• connect with renewable energy sources

The electricity grid is a complex system with one important job: to deliver safe, reliable electricity from power plants across New Brunswick to our customers’ homes and businesses. A modern grid is smarter, cleaner, more resilient and efficient.

What a smarter grid means for you

In the future, you may want to do more than use electricity. You may want to produce it and save it for later, like during a power outage. Or maybe you want it to play a different role in your life, not only at home but on the road.

You’ll have more choices and opportunities in the future for how you use energy.

Smart meters and the grid

Smart meters are one step on the journey to a smarter grid. A smart meter looks similar to our current meter. What makes it different is that it allows two-way communication, over a secure network, giving New Brunswickers the information they need to see and manage their energy use.

Picture this- you’re sitting at home catching up on your favorite TV show, and a lost signal message pops up on your screen. In many cases, before you even have a chance to grab your phone and call your provider, your favorite show is back up and running.

When you lose signal, your cable box sends a signal to your service provider to let them know about the issue. With current technologies, they can send a signal back to your box to try to diagnose the problem. Smart meters enable a similar two-way communication.

Utilities with this feature are seeing improved reliability and restoration speed. Their customers appreciate the added convenience.

Let’s look at some of the other benefits of smart meters:

• Knowledge is power
  
  Your online access to detailed energy information will help you make informed usage decisions.
  
  
• Save with high bill alerts
  
  

You will be able to set up alerts to let you know when your energy use goes up and get tips on how to lower it so you can stay on budget.

• Quicker service
  
  Smart meters enable us to remotely connect and reconnect service to your home so you get quicker service at a time that’s convenient for you.

• Faster power restoration

In many cases, smart meters will send notices to NB Power when the power is out. This allows us to start the restoration as quickly as possible so we can get the power back on faster.

• Greener operations
  
  NB Power can do more work remotely and that means fewer visits and lower carbon emissions.
  
  

Meet Sue and Martin Brannon

Here’s a real life example of a couple who are seeing first-hand the benefits of smart meters.

 

Sue and Martin Brannon were born and raised in New Brunswick, but now share their time between New Brunswick and Florida. They have a smart meter in their home in Florida, which allows them to check their usage, set up bill alerts and receive notices if their power goes out from their home right here in New Brunswick.

Learn more about smart meters.