Do you ever find yourself questing the charges on the utility bills at your Del Mar homes? Utilities companies that service Del Mar homes are turning to a new tool to help consumers conserve energy and cut costs: the monthly bill.

For many owners of Del Mar homes, the utility bill offers little more information than the total due -- not even a breakdown of that figure, which includes not only fuel charges but often a dozen or more other costs, including delivery charges, taxes, and charges for special programs like pollution controls on power plants or subsidies for low-income households.

The problem with such a simple bill is that it doesn't give consumers any way to calculate how much they can save by cutting back on their energy use, or which measures on their part will save them the most. And that blunts a major incentive for conservation

Now, many utilities are in the process of revamping their bills to give consumers detailed information, along with basic tips on how to reduce energy consumption. Some are going even further, testing advanced meters that allow consumers to monitor online the energy usage of the furnace, the air conditioner and other household appliances continuously, so that they can adjust their settings accordingly.

It's an uneven transition. Many utilities say they're still trying to figure out what information consumers need and how best to present it. But more are making the effort as they face growing complaints from consumers about energy prices and increasing pressure from regulators to help reduce energy consumption.

In the Dark

What is it consumers are missing? For starters, without an itemization of charges, consumers can't tell how much of their monthly expense is fixed and how much is within their control. Also, without knowing how much they're paying for each unit of gas and electricity they consume, it's difficult for them to know whether they could get more benefit, for example, from buying a new Energy Star refrigerator or replacing a funky, old gas furnace. And without knowing how the prices of gas and electricity change according to levels of usage, consumers can't gauge exactly how much any conservation effort on their part will save them

The Next Step

Over the next few years, consumers in many markets will receive much greater detail on their energy use than they do today, as utilities install advanced meters that can measure a household's consumption continuously and communicate with devices in the home to measure and even control the energy use of furnaces, air conditioners and other individual appliances.

The ability to measure each household's energy use throughout the day -- rather than simply capturing a usage total once a month, as most meters now do -- would allow utilities to charge different prices for peak and off-peak use, something they already do with many business customers. The idea would be to encourage consumers to spread out their energy use or reduce it outright so that utilities could avoid building costly new plants to handle peak demand -- plants that consumers ultimately pay for. New bills could show consumers what they're paying at different times of the day, giving them the information they would need to adjust their consumption.

Advanced meters also can allow consumers to go online and find out how much juice the refrigerator is using or how much gas the furnace is burning. Some consumers can already do this in pilot programs. Eventually, utilities aim to give consumers the ability to adjust the settings of their appliances and energy systems online, and to see immediately how those adjustments affect their costs and the utility's carbon footprint.

Utilities have tried smart-meter pilot programs for years, but few gained much momentum until recently. With energy prices surging and concerns over global warming growing, there's more incentive now to develop advanced meters. Utilities say they're still feeling their way forward on this front, as they are with more-detailed bills. "There's still work to be done to figure out what people want to see," says Jim Rainear, general manager of energy services for Duke Energy Corp. The utility is conducting smart-meter pilot programs in North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio.

Duke Energy also is exploring a number of other ways to encourage energy efficiency. For instance, by midyear it hopes to have an online tool available that will allow people to log in and answer a questionnaire about the details of their energy use. The utility will then use that information, along with its own record of the customer's energy use, to help it suggest conservation measures.

Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison Co., a unit of Exelon Corp., already has moved in that direction. Its customers can go online and conduct home energy audits based on personal information and even compare usage against people who live in similar homes. ComEd and Duke reached the same conclusion: "We have got to get more personalized," says Casey Mather, Duke's director of mass-market strategy.

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