SDG&E Smart Meters and San Diego Botanic Garden

San Diego Botanic Garden is a leader in connecting the public to our natural world. We inspire adults and children to play their parts as environmental stewards by providing a beautiful natural setting and helping them understand how they are connected to the plants, animals, and world around us.

We have a special focus on children because the need to provide them with a personal connection to nature as a foundation for environmental education has never been more compelling. This generation will need to tackle climate change, depletion of natural resources, air quality issues, and water and energy supply problems, all while considering their own lifestyle decisions.

Children and their families need to learn that there are steps they can take to affect these issues. The Garden provides an arena to increase awareness about local environmental concerns and practical steps for protecting our natural resources.
San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and SDBG have partnered to help you learn more about the new SDG&E Smart Meters that will soon be in all homes and businesses in San Diego, and how the Smart Meters can help you get more information about your energy use and find the best ways to save.

Currently, SDG&E is replacing all electric meters and upgrading all gas meters with smart meters. By the end of 2011, all SDG&E meters will have the new smart technology. All SDG&E customers are getting smart meters; it’s not an optional upgrade. In the future, you’ll be able to access your energy use information online through My Account and take advantage of new programs and services to help you save energy, save money and help the environment.

What is a Smart Meter?
Smart meters are digital devices that collect energy-use data and – unlike traditonal meters – transmit and receive data, too. Electric energy use will be recorded every hour at your home and every 15 minutes at your business.

Natural gas information will be available on a daily basis. Smart meters will enable you to monitor your consumption more precisely so you can make more informed energy choices.

Benefits of Smart Meter

Save Energy and Save Money
The energy use information collected by your smart meter will allow you to make decisions about reducing your energy use.

In the future your energy use information will be available to you on sdge.com or by contacting SDG&E.

More Privacy
Because smart meters send information electronically to SDG&E daily, SDG&E’s meter readers will no longer have to enter your property.
For quality assurance purposes, meter readers will continue to read your smart meter for the first few months.

Find Problems Faster
Smart meters help SDG&E find outages quickly so they can identify and fix the problem faster.

Help the Environment
Smart meters can help you save energy, which saves natural resources and reduces the need to build new power plants or other equipment.

Enabling Future Smart Homes and Businesses
Smart meters can provide additional benefits including sending you notification when your bill reaches a certain amount and controlling smart appliances at your home or business through the Internet.

For more information, visit SDG&E’s Smart Meter site.