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How to Read Your Meter

You can monitor your energy usage on a daily basis by reading your meter. First, determine what kind of meter you have.

Smart meters

Smart meters have digital displays with a sticker on the face of the meter.

smart meter 

To check usage, follow these simple steps:

  1. Locate the digital display on the front of the meter.
  2. Read the numbers of the digital display from left to right.
  3. To calculate your monthly electrical usage, subtract the number from the reading on the front of your last bill to determine the amount of kilowatt-hours since your last meter reading. You can also find your current reading when you view your Energy Dashboard, as well as view the projected amount for next month's bill.

Bidirectional meter

For net metering customers, smart meters are reprogrammed to show bi-directional readings through five different displays: 

bidirectional meter

  • First: Reads a series of 8’s and is the reset and the start of four other displays.
  • Second: Reads ‘CSt 101,’ indicating energy delivered to the home at night and on cloudy days when solar power is insufficient to meet energy needs.
  • Third: Reading of kilowatt (kWh) hours delivered or kWh purchased from us.
  • Fourth: Reads ‘CSt 201, indicating excess energy received from the renewable system after the created energy is used by the home.
  • Fifth: Reading of kWh we received from you – or, excess energy you sent back to the grid for a bill credit.

Mechanical meters

Mechanical meters have dials across the front.

Mechanical meters dials across front

To check usage, follow these simple steps:

  1. Locate the dials on the front of the meter. Most meters have five dials, although some may have just four.
  2. Read the dials from right to left to get your total correct reading:
    1. If the dial pointer is between two numbers, write down the lower of the two numbers.
    2. If the dial pointer appears to be exactly on the number, look back at the dial to the right. If the pointer on that dial has not passed zero, the reading on the dial to the left is the lower number.
  3. To calculate your monthly electrical usage, read the meter at the beginning of the month and again exactly one month later. The amount of electricity (or kilowatt-hours) used is the difference between the two readings.

Time-of-use (TOU) meters

Customers who are on annual or seasonal TOU rates have special electric meters. TOU rates can allow you to lower your electric bills without reducing power consumption as long as you are able to shift electricity use to off-peak times. With TOU rates, you pay a lower rate for off-peak use and a higher rate for peak period use.

You can recognize a TOU meter because it has several (about six) readouts on the display, but reading this meter is complex. For help, please contact us.

Demand meters – business customers only

There are many kinds of demand meters, but they have in common the capacity to provide two readouts - the amount of electricity consumed (kilowatt-hours or kWh) and the demand placed on the electrical system (kilowatts or kW). Most demand meters also have a meter constant (multiplier), a fixed value that is used to convert meter readings to actual energy use. The measurement made by the meter represents only a fraction of the actual energy used. That fraction is multiplied by the meter constant value to get the actual energy use.

There are many different demand meters. If you need more information on reading your specific meter, call your account manager or our Business Customer Care Center at 1-800-225-5797.