Russellville Electric Board approves purchase of new meters

The Russellville Electric Board approved the purchase of new meters that will be installed at each of REB’s ratepayers’ locations.

The REB took the action at a special called meeting held June 1, 2026.

REB General Manager Derrick Moore said the meters presently in use are being phased out by the manufacturer and will no longer be serviced. Additionally, Moore said the Tennessee Valley Authority is requiring its local power companies to go to new meters that will be state-of-the-art and facilitate billing while significantly improving billing accuracy for customers.

The meters will be compatible with the TESCO AMI Metering System, which offers a smart grid solution designed to help electric departments “deploy and manage Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) rapidly and reliably,” according to the company’s website.

The board also authorized looking into the cost of an AMI that would allow linemen to more safely, and more expeditiously, access information including voltage monitoring, outage alerts and predictive analytics.

The AMI system would show, for example, whether an outage results from an on-site issue at that property or whether the outage includes other locations that may be tied to a specific transformer, for example. 

The meters are expected to cost approximately $1.5 million and the purchase is contingent on REB receiving bond approval for the purchase.

Moore said the new meters would be installed in phases.

The meters are designed for integration into Central Services Association’s meter data management system. The CSA software automates data flow from meters into the Customer Information & Billing platform used by REB and most electricity providers.