Published: October 15, 2006 11:50 pm      

Pay-as-you-go electricity coming soon

GREENVILLE — Jimmy Dickey will be one of the first local residents to enter the era of pay-as-you-go electricity.

Dickey, the GEUS Consumer Services Specialist, expects to begin using the local electric utility’s self-managed metering system by the end of this month.

“Myself and another employee will be testing it,” Dickey said. “We hope to go live within a couple of weeks.”

GEUS has been testing self-managed metering on an experimental basis since June and there are hopes the system could go citywide by late this year.

Under self-managed metering, GEUS customers can purchase dollar amounts of electricity ahead of time using a debit-type card. When the electric meter which comes with the system indicates the home or business is running low on juice, the customer can buy more electricity and then swipe the card through a device on the inside of the house.

Should a customer's purchased power run out, the meter would automatically shut off the electricity to the home or business.

In that case, the customer could purchase more power, then just use the card to turn the electricity back on. The process would eliminate the need to send an employee out to turn the power on. The customer would also avoid having to pay the extra fee to have the service restored.

A terminal allowing the purchase of additional electricity will be available 24 hours a day inside the Greenville Police and Courts building at 3000 Lee Street. Terminals will also be available during regular business hours inside the Municipal Building at 2821 Washington Street and the GEUS Service Center at 6000 Joe Ramsey Boulevard.

“We’re expecting about 8 to 1o percent of our customers would be interested in the “Smart Pay” program,” Dickey said.