Smart Meters Take Another Beating (or Two or Three)

In our latest installment of smart meter anguish:

·         Oncor gets sued by a couple alleging their electricity bill jumped after a smart meter was installed. Oncor says the suit is nonsense and that higher bills are the result of unusually cold weather. However, on Thursday WFAA reported that Oncor told the Texas PUC that 1,837 customers had been overbilled since smart meters were deployed due to installers misreading the old meters after putting in new ones.

·         PG&E, sued earlier by angry Bakersfield consumers over smart meter bills, took more heat this week because the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) hired a company that had earlier done work for the utility to conduct an audit of its beleaguered smart meter program. The commission contends there is no conflict of interest. It apparently took four months to pick the consultant, which led one legislator to accuse the commission of stalling, which both the commission and PG&E have denied. The audit is expected to take roughly four months and cost about $1.4 million.

·         The Associated Press reported that a security firm hired by three utilities found new vulnerabilities in smart meters that could let hackers tamper with the electric grid – including hacking a customer’s meter wirelessly with a laptop.

Quick Take: Though there’s a lot of drama right now, hopefully everyone will learn from early missteps and technical flaws so future deployments can proceed more smoothly. It's also obvious that customer education campaigns such as those envisioned by the new Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative are not optional.

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