LA Times Screw Up Illustrates Pending Public Relations Challenge

A botched and ill-informed column in the L.A. Times points out a painful reality -- one of the toughest hurdles to the Smart Grid may be the job of explaining it to the public. That job is made even more difficult by the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude of many self-proclaimed consumer advocates.Under the theory that California often leads the way, utility professionals in other parts of the country may face similar wrong-headed attacks when they roll out their own smart metering initiatives.

On April 20th, columnist David Lazarus wrote that California's three biggest utilities (SCE, SDG&E and PG&E) had all opted for smart meters with less expensive, lower-speed connections. He claimed those meters could be outdated before they are even operational because they would not "speak the same language" as the smart grid of the future. (See link below to read the full article.)

The LA Times declined to print a response, but here is what we would like California readers to know:

David Lazarus’ April 20, 2008 Consumer Confidential reaches an erroneous conclusion – that the new meters being installed by Southern California utilities are outdated the day they are installed. He concludes that California electric consumers will see few benefits from the new meters because they are not connected by broadband.

As the journal of record for the smart grid sector, SmartGridNews.com follows developments throughout North America. We can say with authority that the current Southern California Edison metering installation is far from wrong-headed. It is a model for the rest of the electric power industry.

Mr. Lazarus made at least three incorrect assumptions. We assert that:

Narrowband and broadband can communicate just fine. Lazarus claimed that narrowband meters cannot talk to a broadband smart grid. Broadband simply refers to the capacity of a communications platform. Broadband is to narrowband as an eight-lane highway is to a two-lane street. Claiming that low-speed meters cannot connect to a broadband grid is like claiming that drivers on a city street cannot merge onto an Interstate.

Meters do not require broadband to be valuable. Lazarus implied that low-speed meters would not deliver any value to consumers. The value of two-way messaging does not disappear just because the communications path is slow. A cell phone on a slow analog network may not download videos as quickly as a faster 3G network, but it is perfectly adequate for voice conversations. Likewise, narrowband meters are perfectly adequate for many Smart Grid applications. Indeed, most of the futuristic ideas mentioned by Mr. Lazarus -- real-time pricing, outage management -- are being accomplished today using narrowband meters.

State and federal policy do not mandate overbuilding. It's not usual to see "civilians" get it wrong when it comes to the complexities of the electric power infrastructure. But it was astounding to read Mr. Lazarus' proclamation that putting short-term economics ahead of long-term technology "runs contrary to federal and state policy." In reality, one of the most important roles of utility regulation is to ensure that ratepayers do not get saddled with long-term technology pipe dreams. Regulators rightfully demand that utilities prove the value and payback of their technology investments.

In this case, Mr. Lazarus didn't just get it wrong, he got it embarrassingly and foolishly wrong.

Lazarus admits that broadband meters would cost as much as five times more, but believes the utilities should burden ratepayers with this expense because "the real question is how smart grids will be used five or 10 years from now." According to Mr. Lazarus, California ratepayers should be angry they will be paying $4.6 billion for their new meters. Instead, they should be clamoring to pay up to five times more ($23 billion) to have broadband meters instead. Those broadband meters wouldn't be able to do anything today that can't be accomplished by the narrowband versions, but Californians should pay the extra money "to be technologically prepared for all the bells and whistles" that may show up in 10 years.

By his logic, we should all have installed broadband Internet connections back in 1995 (when they were ultra-expensive) just in case something like YouTube might get invented in 2005. (Don't know about you, but we're feeling pretty smart that we waited until broadband prices got much lower and there was a reason to sign up). By that same line of thinking, maybe we should all build heliports on our roofs today in case gyrocopters become popular in 2018.

Southern Californians should be thankful that their utilities are acting on the need for a Smart Grid now. As Jim Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy states: ‘the Smart Grid is like building a medieval cathedral, the generation that designs it will never see it completed.” Utilities such as Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric are ahead in planning for a Smart Grid. They also actively share their results. We have sat in meetings where representatives from small utilities have stood up and thanked those utilities for their vision and sharing of information. They may not get it right all the time (who does), but on this one – Mr. Lazarus has it wrong and for once, California consumers will have it right.

   LA Times April 20 2008: 'Smart meters' may soon be outdated