In an effort to inspire consumer confidence, Texas utility Oncor has petitioned the Public Utility Commission to oversee independent testing of its smart meters. Hoping to prevent the kind of wide-scale consumer backlash PG&E is experiencing in California.

Oncor has already installed more than 900,000 of the new digital meters and has received several hundred complaints from the Killeen-Temple area about unusually high bills. At a public meeting in Austin on March 4, the PUC heard complaints directly from residents who claimed that despite using energy-efficient light bulbs and water heaters that lowered their kilowatt usage, their bills kept going up. Oncor Electric Delivery points out that area has experienced unseasonably cold weather this winter.

The issue turned political when State Senator Troy Fraser pressed the Public Utility Commission to put the smart meter deployment on hiatus until their accuracy could be verified. The commission rejected his petition but did agree to order the testing.

PUC spokesman Terry Hadley stated there were no systemic problems with smart meters. “There are concerns about the public confidence level,” he explained. “To that end, the commission will begin the process of additional testing.” The commission will contract a third-party, independent company to do the testing and aims to have the testing complete within the next 30 to 45 days.

Oncor spokesman Chris Schein said the company welcomes the testing. “This is really responding to the feedback that we’ve gotten so that we can get this confidence and so we can get past the question as to whether or not these are accurate, and we can focus on the real problem of what’s causing people’s bills to be high.”

Oncor, which is scheduled to have smart meters deployed in every North Texas home by the end of 2012, is also preparing a demonstration project that will let customers see exactly what their usage is by the hour.

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