Florez proposes smart meter reforms
Bakersfield Californian, The (CA) - Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Author: JOHN COX, Californian staff writer jcox@bakersfield.com

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez , D-Shafter, called on state regulators Tuesday to tighten their oversight of investor-owned utilities in light of recently disclosed details about Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s introduction of smart meters.

In a letter to state Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey, Florez proposed 11 policy changes to make the utilities -- and the commission itself -- more responsive to customer dissatisfaction with the meters, including putting new limits on the practice of estimating bills when the remote devices do not function properly.

The reforms are so necessary, Florez wrote, that new legislation may be necessary to protect customers if the commission fails to act on his recommendations.

The senator's letter is the latest in a series of moves urging PG&E to improve its response to customer complaints about its SmartMeter system, blamed by some Bakersfield residents for soaring bills last summer. Florez 's request comes about a week after the utility issued a broad apology for how it has handled SmartMeter-related customer service.

A commission spokesman wrote in an e-mail Tuesday that it is reviewing Florez 's letter and will respond to him directly. The e-mail made reference to a study the commission contracted in March to look into PG&E SmartMeters' accuracy and customer complaints of unusually high bills since their installation. Results of that study are expected to be released in late summer.

"Our independent evaluation of PG&E's Smart Meters is underway and we look forward to the results and taking appropriate actions as needed," spokesman Andrew Kotch wrote. Local PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles said the company's SmartMeter program is intended to benefit customers, and that the utility is taking steps to make sure that is the case.

"PG&E will continue working closely with the (commission) and the state's other investor-owned utilities on programs to make our grid smarter and benefit all Californians," he said "It's vitally important that our customers understand our work so they can reap the full gains from it.

"As we announced last week, we will be providing a link on our main SmartMeter page at PGE.com to (deliver) weekly updates on how our program is doing. Updated information on SmartMeter deployment, billing, customer data usage, system performance, equipment reliability and accuracy testing will all be available through www.pge.com/smartmeter."

Florez said he saw need for the changes upon listening to testimony at last month's hearing of the Senate Select Committee on the Smart Grid, of which he is chairman, as well as reading a Californian report earlier this month about how PG&E sent out "true-up" bills to some Bakersfield customers last summer after SmartMeter problems led the company to underestimate their power usage for months on end.

Particularly troubling, he wrote, is that the commission is "overly dependent" on customer complaints -- and yet it is "wholly unaware" of complaints lodged directly with utilities, which are not required to share them with the commission.

His letter also noted that the commission appears to have taken little if any action to address meter problems, including PG&E's recent admission that it has experienced an increase in electric meter failures.

Florez specifically asked that the commission:

* require investor-owned utilities to report publicly each month the extent of their smart meter failures and errors;

* make utilities report monthly how often they estimate bills as a result of insufficient meter readings data;

* reduce how long utilities can estimate consecutive bills, from three months to one;

* audit utilities' estimated customer bills to ensure that they do not exceed permitted thresholds;

* give ratepayers the option of delaying payment of estimated bills until the utility can provide a bill based on actual meter readings;

* order utilities to disclose how many smart meter-related complaints they have gotten and continue to receive; and,

* create a standard for resolving smart meter complaints.

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