PG&E’s 2009 smart meter rollout proved controversial when more customers complained of unusually high bills. However a Sept. 2 report from the California Public Utilities Commission says this was not the fault of the meters…

This report was initiated by consumer complaints in Bakersfield last summer. The CPUC hired The Structure Group to conduct an independent evaluation of PG&E’s smart meters.

As expected, the report found PG&E’s smart meters to be accurate. In contrast, 4% of the electromechanical meters being which are being replaced were not accurate.

The Structure Group interviewed customers who complained of high bills. They found that 45% of these complaints were due to “electromechanical degradation” — that is, slow meters.

Such problems can be automatically identified and specially handled with appropriate software, such as eMeter’s EnergyIP platform which is used at CenterPoint Energy and Toronto Hydro, both of which experienced greatly reduced customer complaints.

The CPUC report also pointed out a major area where PG&E can improve: meter data storage. This includes problems such as:

• Negative intervals
• Large intervals
• Zero table
• Negative register readings
• Table resets

Such situations affected 12,735 PG&E smart meters — and also can be resolved with appropriate software.

The report also expressed concern about some PG&E practices related to meter deployment; meter data management interfaces; and validation, estimating, and editing (VEE).

So far, PG&E’s solution is to dismantle the traditional operating silos and consolidate billing, VEE, smart meter engineering, and troubleshooting into a single Smart Meter Operation Center. At eMeter, we’ve recommended this approach to the utility industry for some time.