Based in Lubbock, Texas, South Plains Electric Co-operative (SPEC) started its Smart meter program in 1996. As of May 2009, there were 34,285 smart meters connected. This is 75 percent of SPEC's total. The cooperative has projected the smart meters installation completion to all its 46,000 customers by 2014. SPEC's Smart meter implementation for the smart grid allows the utility to cut down its operating costs as well as effectively manage outages [1].
