Hawaiian Electric Co. has shelved plans that could have turned its vast network of power lines into a platform for high-speed Internet and advanced utility services.

Instead, Hawai'i's major power provider is testing a wireless-based technology that reads electricity meters remotely and monitors its electricity network. So far HECO has installed 3,000 so-called "smart meters" in the Ocean Pointe subdivision in 'Ewa Beach.

The pilot program marks a change in research and development focus away from broadband over power line, or BPL, technology that could have provided a high-speed Internet alternative to cable, digital subscriber line (DSL) and wireless Internet service providers. HECO had been testing the new technology at a dozen or so homes in McCully for several years and considered conducting a larger trial at about 100 homes in Pearl City.

The BPL technology could have been used to provide Internet service, though that was never going to be HECO's main focus. Rather, BPL would have been a platform for advanced utility services such as time-of- day electricity metering, automated meter reading and power outage monitoring.

"We don't have a current plan to do a larger BPL project at this time," said HECO spokeswoman Lynne Unemori. "We were interested in looking at the technology as one of the options for evaluating various utility applications.

"The technology proved itself out, but we want to look at other options that are cost-effective."

Right now that involves an ongoing trial of advanced utility meters in conjunction with partner Pittsburgh-based Sensus Metering Systems.

Sensus' technology allows the utility to take hourly electricity usage readings using a network of smart meters and wireless towers. The system allows two-way communication between the utility's offices and residences via licensed Federal Communications Commission frequencies.

Physically, the smart meters are similar in appearance to standard meters. However, the newer meters are entirely electronic inside, compared with current meters, which use older electro-mechanical technology.

"At a very basic level, the new automated system will eliminate the need for meter readers to enter a customer's property," Unemori said. "The network can also remotely connect and disconnect electric service.

"In the future, these meters will be capable of providing automated outage notification to us, helping to pinpoint outage problems and speed up restoration."

Real-time meter readings could make it possible to offer customer pricing options like time-of-use rates. That would allow the utility to establish different electricity rates for different times of the day.

HECO said it had no time frame for any statewide rollout of the new technology. However, it would take several years for a full commercial deployment. At that time, the resources currently used for meter reading would likely be needed to help support other customer service needs, Unemori said.

"In other words, their roles would transition because we'd need the labor resources elsewhere," she said.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.