Rain or shine, Dominion Energy’s gas line systems, facilities and equipment quietly and reliably deliver natural gas to customers around the clock. A meter humbly works day in and day out to measure natural gas use while reducing and regulating pressure at every customer's premises. It also allows for the shut-off of natural gas in an emergency.

Natural gas utility workers are like that, too. In Gastonia, North Carolina, Eric Newton’s team at the “meter shop” also works inconspicuously day in and day out to supply natural gas meters and supporting equipment to over a million customers in the Carolinas.

When supply chain delays caused difficulties for consumers and businesses, Dominion Energy teams companywide experienced it firsthand. Meters were and continue to be in short supply nationwide.

“Overnight, we had to become creative with material procurement by sourcing meters and material from non-traditional suppliers,” Newton says.

That’s because every new home or new restaurant, for instance, depends on a meter and natural gas service can’t be “turned on” without one. Dominion Energy Teams in Utah and Ohio were in the same boat.

For example, Ohio teams experienced a similar shortage of a popular sized meter used on residential and small commercial buildings starting in mid-2021 and through mid-2022. In addition to meter shortages, additional components, like automated meter reading devices (ERTs) were in short supply.

Newton and his Dominion Energy counterparts worked tirelessly to onboard new vendors, acquire refurbished and remanufactured meters, and test and reuse components, like ERTs, that were still functional.

“We’ve worked along with our automated meter reading implementation group to refurbish thousands of used ERTs that were pulled off meters reaching the end of their service life and placed them in new meters being delivered without ERTs due to chip shortages across every industry,” said Salt Lake Meter Shop Supervisor Alan Blain.

Newton’s team even added a new type of meter to keep up with demand, but adding a new meter meant that new skills were needed to work, repair or prepare them for use by not only meter shop employees, but field employees as well, adding another layer of complexity.

“Our core values challenge us to work together – we call it One Dominion Energy, which is what we did to ensure roughly 2,500 Ohio customers had the equipment they needed to start gas service,” said Mitch Rhodes, senior business process analyst at Dominion Energy Ohio.

In true One Dominion Energy fashion, Dominion Energy Utah gave their South Carolina colleagues a month of their new inventory in December so that their colleagues would not run out of meters to meet rapid demand.