Energycompanieswelcomed the switch, which will reducetheirrunningcostsby making meter readers obsolete and eliminating the customer servicetime spent on dealing withestimatedbills.
Nearly all of the 972 meterreaders in Southern California Edison's territory accepted retirement packages or were transferred within the company, says Pat Lavin of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Like cities around the U.S., Santa Clara's electric meters are being systematically replaced, house by house, with high tech ones, eliminating the need for meterreaders to manually check each one every month but raising concerns about health effects, privacy and cost.