Evaluation of PG&E Smart Meters Released

Sunday, 05 September 2010 14:45

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The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released a third-party evaluation of Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) SmartMeter program.  Prepared by Houston-based Structure Group, the report determined that PG&E’s new meters are recording customer electric usage accurately. In addition, it also found that early issues were limited in scope, were being appropriately addressed by PG&E, and generally were caused by factors unrelated to the meters.

PG&E Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Helen Burt, says, “We have wholeheartedly supported this third-party verification in order to make sure that our meters are accurate and our program is sound. We want our customers to be armed with the facts, not with speculation. We are pleased that The Structure Group’s detailed analysis confirms the integrity of our meter program and provides assurance to customers that our meter readings are accurate. We also agree with its criticism of our failure to address customer concerns on a timely basis, and have taken steps to address that real shortfall in our program.”

In preparing the evaluation, Structure Group tested 750 SmartMeters and 147 legacy electromechanical meters from April to August, both in the laboratory and in the field and reviewed 1,378 complaints from customers.

Structure reported that the “evaluation provides the reasonable conclusion that PG&E’s SmartMeters are accurately recording electric usage within acceptable CPUC tolerances, and are being accurately utilized in customer billing. Identified exceptions related to meter and billing issues appeared to have been limited and did not appear to have been prevalent in the overall deployed Smart Meter population.” Structure found PG&E to have been in compliance, or have recently come into compliance, with the majority of best practices associated with Smart Meters.

However, Structure was also critical of PG&E, noting that issues arose because the utility did not notify customers about the meter installations and failed to address their concerns. Structure also concluded the PG&E’s cyber security program meets the objectives set by the main Smart Grid industry task force.

The report is available at www.pge.com/smartmeter.