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>> What are some of the other transformations you're undergoing right now?
>> Our other large program is our Smart Meter Program. What that will virtually do is change the way that we do billing and change the way that we provide customer service overall.
>> Now, how does that specifically work? A Smart Meter, does that mean that you don't have to send the meter reader out anymore?
>> That's exactly right and that's how the business case started. So what it will be is that today on a regular basis the meter reader will go to your home, they'll take a meter read through a hand-held device, they bring it back to the office, we process it and they give you a bill. Well, what do you see, you know, it's about a 30 day lag, right? You look at your bill and you say, oh, gee, that bill was really high I wonder what happened. Maybe I'll make some adjustments in my behavior based on that. Well, what the Smart Meter Program will allow us to do is really to get reads on almost a 10 minute increment providing that data to the customer will be really valuable. What it'll allow you to do is really change your behavior on a more real-time basis. Therefore, --
>> Now, so as a customer I could go online and check my usage and could I set alerts for when I'm getting it too high and it would send me an email?
>> That's where we'd like to get to. So the initial step is we've got to replace almost 10 million meters. So in the process right now of replacing those we've got 20,000 -- 200,000 meters by the end of 2007 going to 1.6 million by the end of 2008. Eventually as we move the program along that's what we'd like you to do is be able to get online and determine what your usage is, take a look at it and make adjustments on a more real-time basis than you can today.
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==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
