Technology

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Meters

The new meters are electronic devices that can record and transmit electricity-use data. They have a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen.

Residential customers (no billing demand)	Business customers (commercial, industrial and institutional)

A Measurement Canada seal affixed to each meter installed guarantees its precision.

Displays

All sorts of information will scroll through the display window.

Energy indicator


The energy indicator takes the form of two little lines that generally move from left to right at the bottom of the screen. The faster they move, the more energy is being consumed.

Energy consumed


This figure shows the total number of kilowatthours consumed. The meter keeps a running total of kilowatthours consumed, the way a car odometer keeps a running total of kilometres traveled. When your meter is first installed, it may display a figure higher than 0 if it has been tested beforehand. If this is the case, the installer will note the figure and subtract it from your energy consumption.

LCD screen


The series of 8s in the picture confirms that the liquid crystal display is working properly. This is a quality test showing that all segments are displaying correctly and can form all the characters, e.g., 0 to 9.

If a segment doesn't display correctly, you needn't worry since the display error won't have an impact on your bill.

Power demand


All customers will see power demand displayed, but this data will be used only in the case of customers billed at rates that include a demand component. This excludes most residential customers.

If your rate includes a demand component, this information will help you keep track of your power demand. The data, which is recorded every 15 minutes, indicates your greatest demand (in kilowatts) within a given time frame (generally a billing period).

Energy injected


This screen shows the amount of energy being fed into Hydro-Québec's grid by a customer-generator. When the two lines of the energy indicator move from right to left, it means you are producing more energy than you are consuming and are injecting your surplus output into our power system.

Network information


Hydro-Québec uses this information to manage the advanced metering infrastructure.