Colorado’s power grid is about to get a big, modern boost, and customers’ should be able to save some money on electricity while better accommodating their electrical vehicles and smart appliances.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission granted a pair of approvals Wednesday to clear the way to installing advanced metering infrastructure and associated components of an advanced communications network. The system is expected to give customers more information and power over where they’re using electricity to help them save it.

But be patient. The meters are expected to be distributed between 2019 to 2024.

The price tag is $612 million, but Xcel doesn’t have an immediate plan to recover the cost directly from customers, but could include it in future rate hike requests, according to the PUC.

“Today the PUC put Colorado on a path to creating a 21st century electric grid,” Erin Overturf, the chief energy counsel for Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based conservation policy center. “Advanced electric meters will empower Coloradans to control and manage their energy use, saving money and reducing waste. Other grid improvements will reduce customers’ energy consumption by approximately 2 percent, avoiding over 300,000 tons of harmful carbon pollution each year.”

Besides the new meters, the Advanced Grid Intelligence and Security also optimizes voltage on the power distribution grid in metro Denver.

Overturf said Colorado leads the way on finding solutions for customers and addressing air quality.