SmartMeter upgrade met with skepticism
| Friday, Aug 21 2009 12:04 PM
Last Updated Monday, Aug 24 2009 02:38 PM
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Questions specifically about SmartMeters can be directed to another PG&E number: 866-743-0263.
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Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has returned to Kern County to upgrade customers' SmartMeters, a move the utility insists will mean better service at a modest price.
As expected, however, the change has stirred skepticism among some customers who say the meters are to blame for higher electric bills.
SmartMeters are designed to give customers more information about how much power they use, and when. The devices also let PG&E charge some customers according to their electricity consumption during times of peak use.
PG&E describes the switch to new SmartMeters strictly in terms of improvement. Instead of transmitting data along existing power lines, as do the meters installed starting locally in fall 2006, the new meters phone in data using radio waves. And because the new meters also work as signal relay stations, they reduce the chance of disruption in data transmission.
Company spokesman Paul Moreno said PG&E will be able to pinpoint power outages more readily in the future, and offer more customers potentially money-saving programs that bill based on power use during peak hours.
In addition, he said, the new meters have the capacity to tell consumers how much energy each in-home appliance uses -- although this option probably will not be available for a year or two.
"It's a more robust and more efficient remotely reading system," Moreno said.
The spokesman acknowledged recent complaints linking the new SmartMeters to higher electric bills. He attributed the general skepticism to an increase in electricity rates that took effect at about the same time some of the new meters were installed.
Some customers aren't buying it.
"My PG&E bill went from $87 to $201" between July and August, said Darlene Nichols a working mother of three living in Rosedale. She said she did not alter her energy consumption habits over that period.
"There's something going on with PG&E," she said. "There's something going on that's not right."
The state Public Utilities Commission reported that it has heard from 48 PG&E customers statewide who wanted to file complaints about the SmartMeters and the company.
Some PG&E customers have also reached out to The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based organization that advocates on behalf of California's utility customers.
TURN spokeswoman Mindy Spatt said it is hard to tell what specific problem is behind each complaint, but that overall the SmartMeters aren't living up to expectations.
"They seem to be creating more problems than they're solving," she said.
Moreno said the sudden surge in high electric bills is probably due to an increase in electricity rates that took effect statewide in March but that wasn't felt locally until temperatures shot up in July.
To some degree, he added, the new SmartMeters address what one company representative has called a "flaw in the system."
That glitch, which was front-page news when The Californian reported it in May, shows up online when customers check their power use on the Internet -- and can result in apparent electricity usage even during power outages. The company said the problem has no effect on customer bills.
PG&E said customers may see misleading information when, for a variety of reasons, the SmartMeters do not immediately transmit meter readings. When this happens the company's computer system fills in the gaps with data modeled after the customers' -- or their neighbors' -- historical usage patterns.
Moreno said such modeling will be less common with the new SmartMeters because their data transmission capabilities are more reliable.
Despite all the skepticism, PG&E hopes to complete Kern's transition to new SmartMeters by the end of this year.
Statewide the company has about 1 million electric SmartMeters and 2 million gas SmartMeters -- and it expects to have a total of 9.8 million SmartMeters of either kind in California by 2012.
The new SmartMeters have come at an added cost being borne by PG&E customers statewide. When the utilities commission approved the system, its pricetag was estimated at $1.7 billion statewide. Moreno said the upgrades will increase that by 29 percent to $2.2 billion.
No further upgrades to the SmartMeter system are coming, he added.
