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Northern California's Pacific Gas & Electric apparently took some hard-learned lessons to heart this week when it did an about face and issued a public apology to customers for "unacceptable" customer service during its deployments of thousands of smart meters. Angry customers in Bakersfield sued the utility over what they said were overcharges on their utility bills and state regulators earlier ordered an audit of the battered meter program. PG&E also released a 700-page report on the program, what went wrong and how problems are being fixed. When the issue initially started to boil, PG&E insisted there was nothing wrong with the meters or the installations.
Quick Take: Too bad PG&E didn't have EPRI's recently released Accuracy of Digital Electricity Meters white paper. In addition to discussing meter accuracy, it addresses a number of customer perception issues that should be mandatory for utilities to talk to their ratepayers about. As the new meters come online, the paper says, there are several opportunities for error during the transition, billing periods and rate structures can change and extraordinary changes in weather also can affect customer perceptions. We’ve got to think the thrashing PG&E and Oncor in Texas have taken are enough motivation for utilities to get it right and talk their customers through meter deployments.
You might also be interested in ...
Accuracy of Digital Electricity Meters (pdf)
Smart Meters Take Another Beating (or Two or Three)
Smart Grid Fallout: Lessons to Learn from PG&E’s Smart Meter Lawsuit
Just Say ‘Hell No’ to Smart Meters, Urges CA Consumer Advocate
Anti-Meter Fever Spreads as Regulator and Customer Mistrust Grows
Why the Smart Metering Business Just Changed Forever Smart Meter news and technologies
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