Provided free to business and residential energy users on the Sharyland Plantation, the service allows users to view their energy consumption levels through a secured Web site by entering a unique user identification number and password. The new service is an expansion of Sharyland Utilities' total metering requirements contract provided by UDRI's parent company, MeterSmart.

"Currently, Sharyland Utilities is the only utility to offer this service to 100% of its customers. However, on an individual basis, we offer this service to other utilities across the United States," said Vance Hall, UDRI's president. By logging on to the Web site, a consumer can view the same information regarding hourly kilowatt usage as used by the utility for billing purposes, in both numerical and graphic formats.

"This is a service that will help all of our customers, including industrial and residential customers, make informed energy decisions by providing them helpful information about their energy usage on a daily, weekly or monthly basis," said Mark Caskey, general manager of Sharyland Utilities. "On Jan. 1, 2002, deregulation started for most customers in Texas, and as part of deregulation, many wire companies implemented new tariffs that have a demand component for billing customers."