Florez may grill PG&E officials
Posted at 10:23 PM on Friday, Apr. 09, 2010
By E.J. Schultz / Bee Capitol Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- State Sen. Dean Florez has called a public hearing to question Pacific Gas & Electric officials about faulty SmartMeters.

Florez, a critic of the new technology, is seizing on a report this week by Bloomberg that the devices in some cases have failed to transmit data.

"There have been a handful of incidents where the wireless meters have stopped relaying usage information," Jeff Smith, a PG&E spokesman, told Bloomberg.

Florez, D-Shafter, wants PG&E Chairman Peter Darbee to answer questions about the issue on April 26 at a Capitol hearing of the Senate Select Committee on the Smart Grid, which Florez leads.

"This new revelation regarding problematic wireless communication not only highlights the need for a thorough investigation of PG&E's SmartMeter program, but also the need to better understand all of the problems PG&E has so far identified that impact customer billing," Florez said in a letter to Darbee.

San Joaquin Valley residents, including some in Fresno, have complained that the new technology has led to faulty spikes in utility bills. PG&E officials have countered that the higher bills are because of hotter-than-normal weather and rate hikes approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Smith said the data transmission errors are not related to the allegations about higher bills. He said the data errors were discovered when the utility tested the meters and those that failed are being replaced or fixed. In cases where data was not transmitted, PG&E estimated the charges and will adjust if necessary.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/04/09/1891396/florez-may-grill-pge-officials.html