Westar Energy Inc. is preparing to upgrade their electric metering system in Junction City, Manhattan and the surrounding areas.

Company officials issued a release saying this will be a $10 million upgrade to provide improved customer service, quicker service delivery and improved outage management while increasing internal operational efficiencies within the company.

The digital upgrade, known as AMI ( Automated Metering Infrastructure ), will allow the customer to view their energy costs and usage from an online energy dashboard. It will give them a chance to understand their electrical consumption, costs and value. Customers can set up budget alerts, receive usage spike alerts and get weekly and monthly email snapshots of their costs and usage.

The upgrade will allow Westar to read the meter remotely, eliminating the need to be physically close to the meter and on the customer’s property. It also allows for remote service orders like a connection or disconnection.

The timeline for capital investment upgrade has begun with the installation of network communication equipment. Customers may see Westar trucks in their neighborhoods installing the wireless communication devices called routers and collectors.

Once the network equipment has been installed Westar will begin the meter exchanges. Installers will exchange every meter in an area by first knocking on the customer’s door to let them know they could experience a brief loss of power while the meter upgrade is taking place. They will provide each customer with an informational door hanger regarding the energy dashboard. If no one is home and Westar has access to the meter they will perform the exchange, leaving behind the door hanger. All customer types will be upgraded to the new metering sytem, including the company’s commercial customers.