California utility under fire for smart meters

CALIFORNIA - Californias largest utility came under fire from state lawmakers for billing practices associated with its smartmeter program, which has generated nearly 1,000 customer complaints to regulators.

Members of the state Senate took Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to task over the 3yearold initiative, which uses electronic data, rather than meter readers, to determine customers monthly gas and electric use.

Advocates say smart meters will lower bills, improve billing accuracy and help customers make betterinformed decisions about their energy use. Other utilities in the state also are trying the devices, though on a smaller scale than PG&E.

But state Sen. Dean Florez, DShafter, said many of his Central Valley constituents are complaining of skyrocketing costs and bill estimates that exceed what they owe.

He said the recent hearing of the Senate Select Committee on the Smart Grid would be the first of several to address possible flaws in the smartmeter system.

This is a revolt, Florez said of the angry customers. The tea party has nothing on smart meters in the Central Valley.

The $2 billion program covers 5.5 million households, primarily in the valley and the San Francisco Bay Area, according to PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno. It will be expanded to about 9.8 million customers in 2012, he said.

PG&E said 99 percent of the meters have performed without problems and that bill estimates are a relatively rare occurrence.

Since the program rolled out in September 2007, only 0.2 percent of smartmeter bills have been estimates, compared to 0.7 percent of traditional meter bills, said Helen Burt, PG&E senior vice president and chief customer officer, who also testified.

Our billing estimate rate is getting better, and our actual estimates are getting more accurate, Burt said. Smartmeter technology is actually saving people money.

PG&E reports its smartmeter data monthly to the California Public Utilities Commission, which has assigned an independent audit of the program. The report is scheduled to be completed in August.

The commissions director, Paul Clanon, said the audit was necessary to address the almost 1,000 complaints he and his colleagues have received from smartmeter customers. All but about two dozen of the complaints were from PG&E customers, he said, and mainly from people in the valley.

One thousand complaints might be a relatively small number, he said. But one bad meter, one bad bill is one too many.

Some smartmeter opponents have called for a suspension of the smartmeter program until the audit is complete. One of those critics, Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said the consumer advocacy group receives 30 to 40 calls per week from frustrated smartmeter customers.

Clanon said, however, a moratorium was unnecessary at this stage. Representatives from smaller utilities say their smartmeter rollouts have gone smoothly.

Customer response has been very good, said Genevieve Shiroma, board president of the customerowned Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which installed 52,000 smart meters so far and plans to extend them to all customers by the end of the year.

For now, SMUD is requiring meter readers to check smartmeter readings in order to boost public confidence in the results, Shiroma said.