California energy regulators on May 13 provided their most detailed description yet of the types of tests investigators will use to check the accuracy of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.‘s controversial SmartMeters.
A consultant recently hired by the California Public Utilities Commission has begun testing the meters, which many PG&E customers claim give inaccurate readings and lead to soaring bills for electricity and natural gas. PG&E has recently announced finding problems with more than 43,300 of the advanced, digital meters, out of the 5.7 million installed.
The Structure Group, a consulting firm that works with the utilities industry, will test SmartMeters both in the lab and in the field, and is expected to report its finding to the utilities commission in four to six months.
According to details released May 13 by the commission, Structure will:
— Check the way PG&E installs meters. The company has reported finding roughly 23,000 meters that were improperly installed, almost all them measuring natural gas use. According to PG&E, the “vast majority” of those meters produced inaccurate bills, with some customers receiving bills that were twice as high as they should have been while others got bills that were half of the correct amount.
— Test old meters that have been replaced with SmartMeters. Some people have questioned whether the older meters underestimated the amount of electricity customers used.
— Place new, lab-calibrated meters next to SmartMeters that have already been installed and see if they produce the same readings through at least one billing cycle.
— Examine PG&E’s systems that receive and process data from the SmartMeters, which transmit their information to the utility via wireless communication.
— Subject SmartMeters to different environmental conditions in the lab to see how well they perform.
Some of the field tests will involve customers who have complained to the utilities commission about their SmartMeters. Starting the week of May 17, Structure will contact PG&E customers whose meters have been selected for testing.
So far, errors with installation appear to account for the majority of SmartMeter problems found by PG&E. Approximately 9,000 meters have demonstrated problems communicating their data, and more than 11,300 meters have had problems storing their information. PG&E executives say they have found only eight meters that incorrectly measured energy use.