Florez speaks out on SmartMeters
| Thursday, Sep 24 2009 10:16 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Sep 24 2009 10:18 PM
, The Bakersfield Californian
Area residents will have another opportunity to speak about escalating electricity bills in the near future when the California Public Utilities Commission holds a hearing in Bakersfield on the issue, state Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, said Thursday.
The date and time of the hearing are still to be determined.
Ashburn said he spoke with PUC commissioner Rachelle Chong on Thursday and that she agreed to conduct a hearing in Bakersfield on SmartMeters, rate increases and other issues.
The senator also said he asked that the rate increase that went into effect in March be frozen until after the hearing. There was no word Thursday on how that request is being met.
"The PUC was created as a consumer protection agency. That is their role," Ashburn said. "They have morphed into something else. My point is to have them exercise the role for which they were created."
Ashburn said he was frustrated that consumers are asked to conserve energy but that instead of incentivizing conservation, ratepayers are being penalized.
"That just doesn't make sense," he said.
Ashburn said his daughter brought the problem home to him when she told him she had turned the temperature way up on the air-conditioning to cut costs. The bill never went down, he said.
Complaints of recent high electricity bills drew sharp challenges Thursday from state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who called on Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to justify its SmartMeter program, and threatened to question the confirmation of two members of the state Public Utilities Commission.
At a press conference inside his Bakersfield office, Florez said he was unsure which entity was more to blame for the high bills that have his phones "ringing off the hook" with calls from upset constituents.
The Senate majority leader invited local PG&E customers to bring their bills to a Bakersfield senate hearing he has scheduled for early next month to discuss the situation. He has also invited representatives of PG&E, the commission and consumer groups.
One goal of the forum, he said, is to resolve some of the recent "finger-pointing" between PG&E and the commission over which is responsible for bills that he said are in some cases triple last summer's totals.
"We want to get them in the same room," he said.
Florez said he will ask PG&E to prove that even one of its customers has saved money with the SmartMeters, which report its customers' power usage remotely and are designed to help people monitor their use. He said he also hopes to learn to what degree ratepayers are bearing the cost of the program, which has been estimated to cost PG&E customers a total of $2.2 billion statewide, including an upgrade carried out across Bakersfield this summer.
A statement issued by PG&E Thursday said customers can save money with SmartMeters by better managing their energy consumption according to the information the devices provide over the Internet -- a feature expected to become more timely next year.
"The SmartMeter program does not change rates, but it does provide customers with detailed energy usage data to help them understand how they are using energy," PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles said. He added that the SmartMeters are expected to more than cover the utility's program operating costs over 20 years, a savings that would stem the need for further rate increases.
Boyles added that customers who opt into PG&E's SmartRate program, which relies on the SmartMeters, can save by cutting back on their electricity usage during announced times of peak usage. He said 87 percent of those who have done so have saved money, and that anyone who does not realize savings after a year can get credited for any difference between what they paid and what their total would have been if they had never enrolled.
Customers who want to question their bill or have their SmartMeters audited, Boyles said, can call the utility at 866-743-0263.
Florez targeted the utilities commission when asked about the timing of a PG&E rate increase the commission approved in March.
The senator said he was unsure when the increase was implemented in Bakersfield, but that if it took place just before the sweltering summer months, then it would be a "hot time" for two commissioners -- Rachelle Chong and President Michael Peevey -- going up for reappointment by the state Legislature later this year.
A representative of the commission took questions about Florez's threat Thursday but did not call back with a comment.
Two local PG&E customers took the podium at Florez's press conference to say how their bills had increased this summer. One of them, June Hahn, said her August bill came to $735.37 -- an increase of nearly 422 percent over the same month a year before.
Neither of the two women had signed confidentiality waivers PG&E says it needs to receive before commenting publicly on customers' bills.
The Senate hearing is to begin at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Kern County Board of Supervisors' chambers on the first floor of the Kern County Administrative Center, 1115 Truxtun Ave.
