Alliant Energy says it will continue to install smart meters in Decorah

Installation of smart meters has begun in downtown Decorah

Alliant Energy is telling the Decorah City Council it will continue to install smart meters in the Decorah area.

The City of Decorah had sent a letter to Alliant, asking it to hold off on installing the smart meters while the city makes a decision on whether to create a municipal electric utility.  Alliant has replied to the city's letter, saying, "We are continuing with our plans to install smart meters in the Decorah area, just as we would install any other planned investments that are beneficial for our customers."

Alliant's letter says smart meters reduce the time it takes to detect, diagnose and repair the system during an outage, nearly eliminate estimated bills, and enable faster response to start/stop service requests when customers move.

The letter says the Iowa Utilities Board took four years to resolve the last application for a municipal electric utility.  "We simply cannot delay our smart meter project for that long in a single community," the Alliant letter says.

Smart meter installation in Decorah has begun and is scheduled to be completed by the end of February.  Says the letter, "Alliant Energy intends to avoid the customer confusion that a delay would cause."