Lawrence residents got a peek at what a smart meter could do for them Saturday as they clustered in front of Westar Energy’s booth at the Lawrence Energy Conservation Fair.

On display was a digital meter and right beside it was a website where customers will one day soon be able to go to check their hour-by-hour energy usage.

“It is really cool. I’m glad we will all get them,” Lawrence resident Michael Arp said. “I’m really interested in understanding how much power I’m using. It’s stuff I never used to think about.”

Westar was one of 45 vendors at the fair, which took place at the Lawrence Community Building, 115 W. 11th St.

Talking customers through the new site was Westar’s Hal Jensen.

“Our focus on this from the very beginning has been what value can we deliver to our customers,” Jensen said.

Lawrence will be the first city in Kansas to get smart meters.

Thanks to a $19 million U.S. Department of Energy grant, Westar will install 45,000 smart meters in Lawrence.

The first 1,500 meters — part of a pilot program — will be deployed in November or December, Jensen said. Installation on the rest will begin in May.

As soon as smart meters are installed, customers will be able to sign into their Westar account. On their account home page, a graph with day-by-day usage will be on display.

From there, customers will be able to drill down further into the data, clicking on each day to see how much energy was used hour by hour. Customers will be able to see energy use from as recently as the day before.

Customers also will be able to view how much energy they have used during their current billing cycle and how much it will cost them.

Along with a dollar amount, the energy usage will be given a value in terms of the carbon footprint left behind. Energy usage could be equated to how many cars would produce a similar amount of carbon emission or how many trees would have to be planted to offset the carbon emitted.

Customers will be able to sign up for text alerts or e-mails that will let them know when they reach a designated dollar amount in their monthly energy bill or exceed a previous usage peak.

“I think it is a tremendous incentive for Lawrence residents or any resident to be more cognizant of what we are doing and what we are spending,” said Lucy McAllister, who was looking for ways to make her father’s 50-year-old home more energy efficient.

Along with the website that gives customers access to their daily energy usage, Westar had another site on display that will gave basic information on what smart meters are. That site will also provide customers updates on the schedule for installing smart meters.