End of an Era – North Idaho utilities replace meter readers with ERT technology from Itron

Many of North Idaho’s electric consumers and some gas consumers now have meters that transmit their data to equipment in a moving vehicle or to a substation’s computer.

Avista meter reader Mark Millsap is both pleased and a little sad as a chapter in his life ends. What he won’t miss, however, are dog attacks like one he suffered several years ago.

Millsap had been in a yard with a Rottweiler and a bulldog many times and he was their pal — so he thought. Once as he came into their yard, the owner inadvertently let them out of the house to greet him. They attacked Millsap so violently that he still suffers nerve damage in his leg. Within minutes, they were his friends again, but the injury had been done.

Those scenarios will be a thing of the past as Avista brings more and more of its customers the automated meters they are now using in Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint and Post Falls. This radio-frequency technology from Itron in Spokane transmits in the ISM band — Industrial, Scientific, Medical — centered around 915 megaherz.

By MIKE SATREN
Staff writer

Full Story: http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2005/07/10/business/bus01.txt