Pacific Gas and Electric’s SmartMeters are about to find new
homes in Hollister and the rest of the county in the upcoming
months.
Pacific Gas and Electric’s SmartMeters are about to find new homes in Hollister and the rest of the county in the upcoming months.
The SmartMeter, which has been cloaked in a series of controversies during the past year, will replace old dial meters in the upcoming weeks and months, as PG&E is moving forward with plans to install 10 million SmartMeters throughout California by 2012, spokesman Jeff Smith said. The electric company has already installed 7 million meters in the state.
The meters will be installed within the next month, Smith said. Letters were put in the mail Friday, notifying customers that the meters will be installed soon. With the letter, PG&E also sent out “SmartMeter kits” that ran through all the benefits of the technology.
A SmartMeter electronically monitors electrical output every 15 minutes, and sends the results to PG&E on a wireless network. The results are then placed on the company’s website so its customers can determine how much energy is being used. The device will ultimately eliminate the need for meter readers. After initial installation, customers must wait 30 to 60 days until the entire neighborhood is installed with the meters to access the information online.
“It really can provide folks with information that will help them save money,” Smith said. “You can not only see how much energy you’ve consumed, and what that’s going to cost you, you can go and see how you are spending your money on you energy bill.”
But the meter hasn’t been met with anticipation from most communities. When it was first installed in Bakersfield last summer, customers started to complain about increased bills, Smith said. Earlier this year, San Francisco County – among others – put a moratorium on the meter’s installation because of malfunction worries and increased bills.
Other concerns included electromagnetic radiation levels, or EMF, coming off the wireless technology – much like a cell phone. Recently, a company executive was suspended and later resigned after he tried to infiltrate an online group of those that opposed the meter due to health concerns.
Smith said the meter falls under Federal Communication Commission guidelines and issues much less radiation then cell phones.
“We are not scientists, and we certainly don’t claim to be scientists on this issue, so what we did is consult with the foremost leaders on it and scientists on that issue,” Smith said. “The FCC sets the guidelines on what acceptable levels are and these are far, far below the FCC guidelines.”
Worries from customers forced an investigation from the California Public Utilities Commission to see if the meters were accurately reading power usage. The report was carried out by Texas consulting firm Structure.
The results, which were released on Sept. 2, show that the meters are accurate but PG&E’s job handling the issues “lacked communication.” The increased bills were attributed to hotter weather.
‘The evaluation identified multiple factors that appeared to contribute to the escalation of the SmartMeter-related high bill complaints, including PG&E’s customer services practices,” the report states.
After berating the power company in the report, CPUC continues to keep a watchful eye on PG&E because of the complaints.
“The California Public Utilities Commission has been monitoring PG&E’s customer outreach around SmartMeters and we’re working with them to make it more ubiquitous and effective,” said CPUC Public Information Officer Christopher Chow in an e-mail to the Free Lance.
In response to the report, PG&E has increased their effort with local communities, holding meetings and answering its customers’ questions, Smith said. PG&E wants to let people know they are coming, what they are doing and what to expect afterward.
“When we first started installing the program we looked at it a lot like we were replacing a transformer on a pole or a piece of equipment that needs to be replace,” Smith said. “We didn’t recognize that the tool that measures our customers’ energy use is actually not the same things as that.”
It’s PG&E’s customer service that worries Hollister Councilman Doug Emerson, he said.
“That type of stuff just bothers me,” Emerson said. “There has to be a way to make it consumer friendly.”
Emerson wasn’t going to “jump on the bandwagon” of the SmartMeters just yet but he realized the technology would bring more efficiency to the city.
“Technology is gong to come in the area and I don’t want to say don’t bring these things in,” he said. “The make everything run more efficient but we have to make sure they are consumer friendly.”
PG&E expects to finish installation of the meters in Hollister within 6 months, Smith said. The meters will be installed in San Juan Bautista soon after.
