Houston-area homeowners should plan to chip in more than $400 each over 12 years toward a system of "smart" meters aimed at making homes more energy-efficient, the Houston Chronicle reports today.

The Texas Public Utility Commission OKed the CenterPoint Energy plan at its Thursday meeting. The fee works out to $3.24 per month beginning in February, dropping to $3.05 after two years, according to the Chronicle's Tom Fowler.

Supporters tout the potential savings to homeowners, saying they will be able to monitor their power usage and adjust accordingly --- like turning down the temperature when it's hot and the utility company says there's peak demand. Homeowners will be able to access the information over the Web. They'll also eventually be able to purchase appliances to communicate with the meters.

"They're putting chips inside new equipment that this chip can talk to," said CenterPoint Energy's Floyd LeBlanc, vice-president of corporate communications. "In addition, companies are making adapter plugs" for older appliances. The technology is called the ZigBee chip.

ZigBee Alliance spokesman Kevin Schader said the adapters are not widely available in the Houston area yet but should eventually be available either through the utility providers or in stores.

"They're coming," Schader said. "Probably, people should just wait until they've heard from their (utility) rep. This is brand-new stuff."

Houston customers will shell out a dollar more per month than DFW residents will pay for a similar plan. From Fowler's earlier reporting:

Oncor, the operator of the power grid that serves Dallas and Fort Worth, will begin rolling out smart meters to its 3 million customers on Jan. 1. Oncor customers will pay $2.21 per month over 11 years, or a total of $291.72.

CenterPoint Energy's LeBlanc said one major difference is volume --- Oncor has 3.4 million meters while CenterPoint has 2.2 million. Oncor is using some money from their base rates to fund the project, and CenterPoint's system is superior, LeBlanc said.

"Our system will come out with more functionality than theirs has," he said.

We also called the Texas Public Utility Commission this morning and asked why the Dallas-Fort Worth plan worked out cheaper. A spokesman said he would research the issue.

UPDATED AT 2:36 P.M.: CenterPoint has about 1.86 million residential customers in the Houston area, while Oncor has about 2.63 million residential customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said Terry Hadley, spokesman for the Texas Public Utility Commission. "That spreads the cost more for Oncor."

Hadley also said that even though the CenterPoint system will function in the same way Oncor's will, CenterPoint's meters have more features.

"In general, those are better ways, or more ways, for the customer to get information both to CenterPoint and from CenterPoint, so it's a little better product," Hadley said. Hadley said the commission would monitor costs as the project is implemented.

Photo: By flickr user redjar. Used via the Creative Commons license.