The Illinois Utility Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) announced Thursday that three of their new digital smart meters overheated causing fires in customer’s homes. The fires damaged metering equipment and the “immediate area around the meter,” ComEd said, adding that tests showed the smart meter design was not the cause of the problem.

“The cause was related to fitting and connection issues with an older-model socket that had a poor connection at the point where the customer’s wires and ComEd’s wires meet,” ComEd said in a statement.

Smart meters allow for communication between utility and meter. They can record and send temperature data, and alert the utility when outages occur.

Smart meters were installed by ComEd in 130,000 homes in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood and 10 western suburbs as part of a pilot program approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission in 2009.

To Learn more about smart meters check out the ComEd website

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Sources:

Chicago Sun-Times, Comed says three smart meters have caught fire