Robert Norton plans to see AMI
through to the end

 

 

A lot has changed at Georgia Power since the July day in 1962 when Robert Norton hopped on a trolley and headed out, meter-reading cards in hand, to begin reading meters in the west part of Atlanta.

In 2012 – 50 years since he started – Norton will oversee the installation of the final automated meter, officially ending the era of manual meter-reading.

"If the Good Lord is willing and my health holds up, I plan to be here until we replace that last meter," said Norton, the Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) logistics and installation supervisor for Georgia Power.

Early in January 2010, a major AMI milestone will be reached, as the 1 millionth automated meter will be deployed somewhere in Tucker, Ga. When the project ends, more than 2.6 million meters will have been replaced.

There was nothing automated about the process when Norton began work, fresh out of Carrollton, Ga., and eager to begin a job in Atlanta that would give him some freedom and a chance to work outside.

Every day when he reported to work, Norton was given two trolley tokens, costing 10 cents apiece. He would use one token to ride the trolley out to the area of this route and the other to ride back. The rest of his day was spent on foot, trudging from house to house, carrying meter-reading cards to record the meter readings.

Meter readers were part of the neighborhood fabric in those days, like milkmen and mailmen. The customers knew them, and knew when they were coming, and would often invite them in their houses for lunch.

"That was a very different time," Norton said. "Sometimes we'd have to go inside the house to read the meter, so we'd have to be careful to make sure our feet weren't muddy. "

Norton would read up to 300 meters on a typical day, completing his rounds regardless of the weather. He noted each reading on a meter-reading card, which he had to keep protected from the elements. And no matter what those elements were – rain, wind, cold or heat – the meter readers completed their appointed rounds.

He had only been working a short while when he was felled by a bad case of the flu that left him bedridden for a few days and unable to work. But when he was back on his feet, he was there to stay. For the next 42 years, he never missed a day of work because he was sick, a streak that only ended when he had to have surgery in 2004.

Later, he moved from meter reading to customer service, answering telephones, then into a supervisory position in the business office at 15 Forsyth Street in Atlanta. While working there, he had a memorable encounter.

One day, Norton heard a commotion and looked out to see none other than famed civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., waiting patiently in line to pay his electricity deposit. Norton went out to the line and introduced himself to Dr. King, and told him that he would be happy to take him back into his office and help him, so he wouldn't have to wait.

But King politely declined, saying he would just wait his turn like everybody else.

"That told me a lot about the man," said Norton. "He didn't want any special consideration, though I was willing to give it to him."

Norton is something of a company historian. He proudly displays two old badges formerly worn by meter reader and meter department employees from the days for Georgia Railway and Power Company. Once he visited Preston Arkwright's grave and, seeing that it was unkempt and overgrown, came back with his own lawn mower and tidied things up.

He has collections of old newspaper clippings concerning the company, and he still has a book he was given when he began to work here, titled, "History of the Georgia Power Company, 1855-1956."

Norton's long career at Georgia Power has been mostly focused on customer service. Now, he is part of a major change in the way the company conducts its business and serves its customers. When the initiative is over, the meters will have been installed in more than 2.6 million locations. Workers are averaging replacing about 2,000 per day.

"We have gone to locations and removed meters that have been there since the '40s," Norton said. "They were just as accurate when we pulled them as the day we installed them."

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