In report to CPUC, Structure Group deems meters OK, but criticizes utility for poor communication
Weekly Update Courtesy of Utility Regulatory News #3988: Reviewing the results of a report it had commissioned after fielding more than 1,300 customer complaints about smart meters and associated high bills, the California Public Utilities Commission has concluded that the meters, as well as their related software and billing systems, were operating within industry norms and were accurate within approved standards.
The subject meters had been deployed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) in the San Joaquin Valley area, with complaints about high bills ensuing almost immediately upon their installation. In response to such inquiries, the commission had enlisted the services of The Structure Group (TSG) to evaluate and analyze the new advanced metering devices. After conducting laboratory tests, field tests, and end-to-end system tests, TSG found no problems with the meters and their connected systems. According to the TSG report, the metering devices were working properly and customer billings reflected the data collected from the meters. However, the audit team faulted PG&E for its initial response to consumer complaints, finding that its action in cancelling numerous bills, then rebilling customers without explanation, caused unnecessary confusion.
The utility also was criticized for failing to adequately communicate with and educate its customers about the new meters prior to rolling them out. A lack of appropriate communication protocols was also cited as being behind customer complaints of unsatisfactory service and delayed responses to their complaints. The audit disclosed that it took PG&E an average of 4.5 months to resolve smart meter-related billing disputes. For the full story, subscribe to URN.
Weekly Update courtesy of Utility Regulatory News #3981: Pending receipt of more information about the marketing and evaluation elements of an electric utility’s plan for a smart grid pilot project, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has postponed a decision on approving the plan. The plan was submitted jointly by Massachusetts Electric Co. and Nantucket Electric Co., both doing business as National Grid. The filing was made pursuant to a state law, the Green Communities Act, which requires every electric utility to develop a smart grid pilot program.
The project outline sponsored by National Grid was far more expansive than required by law, however. Whereas the statute called for a minimum of 0.25% of an electric utility’s customers to participate in any smart grid pilot, National Grid’s proposed program would include almost five times as many customers as necessary to meet the statutory threshold. Its smart grid plan also incorporated installation of more automation on its own distribution end of the grid than required.
Several parties took issue with the size, scope, and scale of the utility’s plan, arguing that the purpose of the pilots is to gather test data, for which such a large number of participants was not statistically necessary. The department, however, said that it saw no need to reduce the size, scope, or scale of National Grid’s pilot, averring that a larger-scale deployment of smart grid technologies could produce more accurate cost/benefit analyses of the technologies. Nevertheless, the department declined to approve the pilot as filed, finding that the project proposal was incomplete as to how the utility expected to carry out its associated marketing, education, and outreach functions and how it planned to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
National Grid was given 90 days to provide the department with details on those two aspects of the project. Subscribe to URN for the full story.
Weekly Update courtesy of Utility Regulatory News #3979: Continuing its practice of promoting energy policies that contribute to environmental improvements, the California Public Utilities Commission has authorized an electric utility, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E), to establish temporary experimental rates for plug-in electric vehicles. The rates are part of the utility’s ongoing Pricing and Technology Study, which is being conducted in cooperation with Nissan and ECOtality, Inc., a renewable energy company that specializes in commercial applications of advanced clean energy technologies. Under the associated new rate program, the first 1,000 consumers in San Diego who purchase a new Nissan LEAF electric vehicle will receive free home charging equipment and will be eligible for special time-variable plug-in rates. The utility said that the main hypothesis behind its study was that time-of-use rates for electric vehicle owners would induce them to shift their recharging activities to off-peak periods. The commission agreed that finding out how consumers respond to price signals could be key to successful reintroduction of electric vehicles in the state. The commission added that the study also should help identify any potential safety problems related to recharging as well as any incompatibilities between charging equipment and SDG&E’s infrastructure. The commission noted that the electric vehicle project will be funded in part by a stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to ECOtality. That grant, totaling $99.8 million, will be matched by private investments. The stimulus funds are expected to be sufficient to cover the costs of the charging equipment for those first 1,000 LEAF purchasers. For the full story Subscribe to URN.
Excerpted from “Summer of Discontent,” Fortnightly’s August 2010 Frontlines column.
As America approaches summer’s Dog Days, the debate over smart meters is heating up. Utilities in at least four states are facing public backlash against smart-meter rollouts — and that’s not counting the class-action lawsuits previously filed against Oncor and Pacific Gas & Electric in Texas and Bakersfield, Calif., respectively.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: About 60 residents picketed offices of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco on July 20, carrying protest signs and chanting such slogans as, “One, two, three, four, smart meters no more.” The demonstrators voiced concerns about privacy and personal choice issues, as well as the meters’ radio-frequency transmissions and their possible effect on human health. Several local governments in Northern California, including Berkeley, Marin County, Santa Cruz and San Francisco, petitioned PG&E to stop its smart-meter rollout pending further public hearings and studies.
The Marin Independent Journal published an editorial on July 20 that stated, “Forcing your customers to do something without first making sure they are comfortable with it is not the best way to run a business.”
MARYLAND: Executives at Baltimore Gas & Electric were stunned when the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) decided in June to deny the company’s DOE-funded smart-grid investment plan. The decision came in the midst of a heated gubernatorial campaign, in which Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) is campaigning on a theme of green jobs, while former Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) accuses the O’Malley administration of killing jobs with anti-business regulations. Against this backdrop, BGE petitioned for expedited re-hearing and amended its plan to address the PSC’s concerns—most notably by deferring and limiting BGE’s proposed capital-expense “tracker”; eliminating shareholder incentives for achieving demand-reduction targets; accelerating the depreciation of the new meters; making time-of-use rates voluntary instead of mandatory; and proposing a customer communication and education plan. The commission agreed to schedule hearings for early August.
OHIO: The Westerville city council voted in a meeting on July 20 to postpone a final vote on the municipal utility’s federal stimulus-funded smart-grid project. Chairman Mike Heyeck announced afterward that the postponement would allow the council to field questions and comments from Westerville residents, and to “provide additional opportunity to learn more about advanced metering” via a series of public events and outreach efforts.
The council’s decision came in the wake of growing public discontent, expressed at a July 6 city council meeting, where the residents who showed up spoke overwhelmingly against smart meters. ThisWeek newspaper quoted resident Charles Voight Jr. expressing outrage over the remote disconnection capabilities of smart meters, and the city’s decision to accept federal stimulus dollars. “This process seems to have been predetermined, with the grants being applied for without the public giving their full consent,” Voight reportedly said. “I personally will not let you into my home, remember that.”
Andy Boatright, electric utility manager for the city of Westerville, told Fortnightly in a phone interview that many of the 30-plus people who have expressed opposition to the project have focused on the federal government’s role. “I think it’s primarily a function of the federal grant,” Boatright said.
COLORADO: Xcel Energy awaits a decision by the Boulder city council on whether to recommend that voters renew Xcel’s utility franchise. That’s right; the celebrated Smart Grid City might actually walk away from its utility partner.
Xcel’s 20-year agreement expires at the end of 2010, and the utility wants Boulder to sign up for another 20 years. But surveys indicate voters would reject such an agreement, as well as an alternative plan that would impose an excise tax on Xcel—which the company would pass through to customers in monthly bills. Council members reportedly are considering municipalizing Boulder’s utility services if voters reject both initiatives.
Negative public sentiment over Xcel’s franchise agreement might be tied to the company’s Smart Grid City project, which has encountered its share of problems—from ballooning capital costs to disappointing participation in its demand-response program. Xcel CEO Dick Kelley told Fortnightly in June, “There’s huge value on the utility side of the meter, but it hasn’t been that successful on the customer side. I guess some people thought Boulder residents were super-environmentalists, but in fact they just want their TV to work and their beer to be cold when they get home.”-Michael T. Burr
Cyber security and customer privacy of paramount concern
July 22, 2010 - Weekly Update From Utility Regulatory News #3977: Reiterating its support for the most modernized electric network possible, the California Public Utilities Commission has released an updated plan for transforming the state’s grid into a safer, more reliable, and more efficient interoperable system.
The commission asserted that the measuring sensors, advanced meters, and automated control technology that form the backbone of smart grid networks facilitate communication between electric utilities and the grid as well as between the utilities and their customers. The special equipment allows for more timely collection and dissemination of operational data and also can help utilities integrate greater amounts of renewable energy into their resource portfolios. In the commission’s view, such smart grid technology not only can improve service reliability, by easing transmission congestion for instance, but also can encourage ratepayers to reduce or shift their usage, such that the need for additional new power plants is mitigated. The commission contended that, in turn, air quality can be improved and other environmental benefits achieved when new generating units can be avoided.
However, the commission said, it recognized that the electronic transmission of data has its risks, and it declared security to be a critical policy matter for it as it strives to implement smart grid fixtures. It expressed a commitment to enacting measures that will protect both the physical grid and private consumer information from being manipulated externally. To that end, it instructed the state’s electric utilities to include cyber security in their strategic planning deliberations and to abide by all cyber security rules and recommendations listed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as well as by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
With such protections in place, the commission said, the state would be poised to bring its electric grid out of the “industrial age” and into the “information age” of technology. It added that its goal is to see not just a smart grid, but also a smart market, a smart utility, and a smart consumer.Subscribe to URN for the full story.