Almost every utility customer has felt the anxiety of opening their monthly bill in the middle of a blistering hot summer. You know the air conditioner is working overtime, and the kids are home all day from school break.

How much electricity did you use? Worse yet, how much will it cost your strapped budget? Well, you probably know the next part.

This is a key benefit of the Smart Grid. The new technology will provide the most advanced tools to know how much power you’ve used at any time. Smart meters wirelessly transmit data about your electric use every 15 minutes. Then you can check on it whenever you want.

That can save the stress of an unpredictable utility bill and help you to better manage electric use and budget for the monthly expense. Sound smart? Just wait.

As part of a $20 million update of its system, the Leesburg Electric Department will install smart meters for all 23,000 customers. Federal funding also will help to pay for more than 4,000 energy management systems that will allow customers to program when they operate their electrical appliances such as air conditioners and water heaters. The goal is to reduce electric consumption during daily peak times, when big power plants work the hardest and charge the most to supply electricity to Leesburg and other utilities.

A considerable reduction of peak-time electric demands can mean considerable savings to the utility. So Leesburg may look at several possible programs to institute incentive rates that discourage peak-time electric use and reward all customers with lower electric rates throughout most of the day.

So everyone has a chance to help lower power bills, and Leesburg will provide you with the tools to make it happen.

Very smart.