Electric Meters Will Be Upgraded During April

During April, town work crews will be finishing the last phase of a project begun last year to replace old electric meters all over town with new ones that help the utility system operate more efficiently.

The new meters are more accurate and utilize radio signals which are read by equipment mounted in a service vehicle. Rather than have several Meter Readers walk the entire Town on a revolving, monthly basis, a single staff person can drive by all addresses in just a few hours and automatically log electric usage.

"These new meters will allow us to operate more efficiently," said Customer Service Director Ann Game. "This work will complete the upgrade."

Technicians will be going home-to-home, beginning in the West Moss Creek and Glenhaven subdivisions, then moving towards the Cobblestone subdivision and finishing in the southern part of town at Alta Mobile Home Park. Work was completed in other parts of town last year.

The upgrade requires a service interruption of about 30 minutes or less as technicians remove the old meter and install the new one. The work will be done Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, except for an occasional Saturday. Technicians will knock on the door and inform each resident of the short interruption in service prior to initiating the work at that address.

"We regret the inconvenience that a short interruption of service might cause, but the upgrade is necessary," Game said. "We're hoping that 99 percent of our customers won't even notice."

For more information, please contact Game directly at her Town Hall office at 919-553-5002.

Similar upgrades have been undertaken by several, mostly larger, utility systems across North Carolina in recent years.