The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) voted Dec. 14, 2017, to approve Entergy Texas’ request to deploy advanced metering systems in the company’s market.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) defines an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), also called a smart meter, as “a metering system that records customer consumption hourly or more frequently and that provides for daily or more frequent transmittal of measurements over a communication network to a central collection point.”

According to Entergy Texas, upgrading to AMI will have numerous benefits:

Vernon Pierce, whose career at Entergy spans more than 43 years, has announced his retirement.

Pierce officially retired at the end of January as vice president of customer service for Entergy Texas Inc. where he was responsible for oversight of distribution operations, including construction, engineering, repair and expansion of infrastructure for existing and new customers. He also maintained oversight of storm response activities, and most recently, led the Entergy Texas response to Hurricane Harvey, which knocked out power to 186,200 customers.