Reading Load Meter

If you use 1,000 or more kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, you may be able to reduce your monthly electric bill by taking advantage of our residential load management option. If so, your electric meter will have either an electronic digital display or an additional mechanical indicator called a load meter. These types of meters allow us to measure and record your highest peak demand for electricity each month.

Mechanical Load Meters

You can read a mechanical load meter yourself. One type of load meter, shown here, has a large needle that moves along a calibrated scale around the meter face. The scale measures kilowatts (kW). The needle indicates the highest peak load since the meter was last read. As when reading the round dials, if the needle is between two marks the lower one is read. In this example, the needle registers 21 kW.

Another type of load meter has two large needles moving along a kilowatt scale. One needle indicates the highest 30-minute peak load since the last meter reading; the other needle, with a red tip, measures how much electricity is flowing into your home at the moment. As shown in this example, the load is currently 10.0 kW and the maximum 30-minute load was 18.5 kW. The load reading you would enter is 18.5.

This load meter uses three small dials, similar to the electric usage meter, to measure peak load. The vertical black line between the dials indicates the decimal point. Thus, this load meter reads 0.07 kW.

Do Not Reset Your Demand Meter

If you read the meter yourself, don't reset the load meter. You'd have to break the anti-tampering seal, which would automatically trigger an investigation into why the seal was broken. Our meter reader will reset your load meter and attach a new seal the next time he or she reads the meter.

Electronic Load Meters

If your meter has an electronic digital display, we do not recommend attempting to read this type of meter yourself. Many factors are involved in determining an accurate bill for you, and many of these factors cannot be entered through our Web site. Please be assured our trained, professional readers will make every effort to obtain your meter data every month.