Westerville's electric department was selected last week to receive a $4.3-million federal grant for purchasing digital electric meters, but the program won't move forward before city council has a vote.

"We're on hold, pending council approval of the program," said Andrew Boatright, the city's electric utility manager.

Westerville City Council heard a recommendation at a Sept. 8 work session to move toward advanced metering infrastructure for its water and electric departments as a way to save money over time.

Such a program would install digital meters that connected through the city's broadband system. The city would be able to use the digital technology to manage its energy load and automatically read meters and bill customers.

The $4.3-million cost would pay for 16,000 new electric meters, Boatright said. The total cost for the program would be around $10.6-million and would include the purchasing of about 14,000 water meters, a portion of the cost of the digital infrastructure and a Web portal that would allow electric consumers to view real-time and historical metering data.

Boatright said a timeline has not yet been established for taking the measure before council, but he said, ideally, the city would have the system up and running in two years, following the establishment of infrastructure and communication nodes, as well as the replacement of the city's electric meters.

"By the end of 2011, we should be operating the new Smart-Grid system for basic meter-reading functions," Boatright said.

He said the grant should help Westerville in moving toward the system.

"We'll certainly have to go back to city council to get their approval to accept the grant and go forward with the process," he said. "Having been awarded the funds now provides a boost to the process."

Though the system has not been approved by council, Boatright said the electric division already is getting calls from residents who worry that the smart grid would be a way for the city to establish mandatory limits on electric loads.

"We've been getting residents calling and concerned about there being controls mandated to participating in programs where we would control their load, and that is not the intention," Boatright said. "Programs for load control would be an optional program for consumers."

The system would allow residents to monitor their own electrical use more closely in order to reduce usage.

Eventually, although it is not part of any current proposal, the city could use the system to establish time-of-use rates, with higher rates during peak hours to encourage people to use electricity during non-peak hours, Boatright said.

"Time-of-use rates is kind of a new thing," he said. "With current technology, it's hard to enforce those kinds of rates."

The system could also have an optional program whereby customers would allow the city to send signals to devices that control appliances, such as air conditioners, to turn off for a few hours during an urgent peak time, Boatright said. The shutoffs would be for a short time so as not to inconvenience customers.

The grant to be received by Westerville was part of $3.4-billion in federal grants announced last week through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Four companies, the city of Wadsworth and Westerville all received grants in Ohio.