No Smart Meters in Palo Alto Before 2015
PG&E has been installing smart meters for three years with many complaints about increased electric costs and health issues.
Utilities staff, the UAC and consultants have been reviewing the status of smart meters and their applicability for Palo Alto since 2009, and have concluded that it makes no economic or functional sense to install smart meters now.
The feasibility will be studied further and by 2014 or 2015 costs and benefits may be better balanced and installation may be justified.
PG&E has been installing smart meters for more than three years and has gotten thousands of complaints about big increases electric bills and occasional complaints of health problems attributed to radiation from the
smart meters. Their installation in Palo Alto is inadvisable now. Costs would exceed benefits, and electricity bill savings for customers would be minor, only 1% for residential and ½% for commercial.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), or smart meters, allow remote meter reading and give customers and the utility data on current usage. This makes it easier to adjust electric usage to off-times when demand on the grid is less.
Installing AMI in Palo Alto would cost $16 million. Operating and maintaining the system over 20 years would bring costs up to $29 million, but benefits would be just $23 million. AMI requires greater customer involvement with the utility system so that they are more informed and can improve efficiency of electrical and water resources.
Staff efforts would be needed to reach out to customers and show them how getting involved could reduce charges and improve performance. This would not be simple.
Distribution Automation (DA) allows more efficient system operation. Installation cost would be about $3 million, but savings would only be $2.7 million. Current system reliability is quite good. Installing DA would have a net cost and wouldn’t significantly improve operations.
Costs and risks of AMI adoption in Palo Alto are declining, so in a few years the cost-benefit figures should be improved. Utilities staff and the UAC will continue to track and evaluate improvements and cost reductions in AMI and DA for 2 or 3 years. Meanwhile a number of programs could proceed:
a) Developing a robust gas and water meter maintenance and replacement plan that considers changing meters to smart meters.
b) Adjusting rates to encourage electric vehicle and other high electrical use applications to occur at off-peak hours.
c) Implementing Demand Response for large commercial customers and evaluate performance.
d) Provide incentives for large commercial customers to building management systems to be compatible with smart meters.
e) Developing long term plans for Distribution System Automation.
f) Analyzing potential energy conservation on the existing distribution grid.
g) Reviewing and updating AMI backend software cost estimates.
Palo Alto’s utility system is well regarded by customers, is relatively efficient and spends far less on customer complaints and outages than most other utilities. Moving slowly and carefully into smart meters is the
best approach.
RobertWilliams
11:19 am on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
THE COST BENEFIT DOES WORK FOR PG$E BECAUSE ALL THE COSTS ARE ON THE BACKS OF CUSTOMERS AND ALL THE BENEFITS GO TO PG$E CORPORATE MANAGEMENT (not even the employees.)
Anonymous
5:39 pm on Friday, March 23, 2012
I have a reasonable solution that will befit both parties
SCE and others could easily setup a website & hotline for residents to voluntarily report their meter readings.
They already have websites and automated phone systems for usage. A customer could easily go to a website or call into an automated system and input their account number and meter reading. This system would automatically record the time of the reported meter reading and echo back a confirmation number for reference.
Customers could be expected to report their meter reading “..on or about..” the recording date that is already on their statement. A penalty could be imposed for people that are excessively late on reporting meter reading, and SCE is already comfortable with making-up meter readings when they don’t have one. I have already seen SCE make up meter readings based on previous usage when they don’t have one in the past.
If voluntary meter readings are suspiciously low they could simply send out an inspector to verify the reading. They already do this as part of their billing dispute process.
This solution is relatively inexpensive as almost all the resources to do so are already in place. SCE gets their automatic meter reading and we can keep our analog meters!
It’s a win win solution.