These days, nothing says “I’m a 21st century product” quite like word “smart” in front of it. There’s “smart phones,” “smart cars,” “smart loans,” even “smart toilets.” So it should come as no surprise that gas and electric companies statewide are rolling out new “smart meters” that will replace the old – apparently “dumb” – mechanical usage meters with high-tech digital versions that track energy use down to microscopic detail and beam the info wirelessly to the power company.
In California, however, not everyone is using the word “smart” to describe this new digital revolution. As of last week, Pacific Gas & Electric Company had received 1,493 complaints from customers over the meters, most of whom argue that the fancy gauges grossly overcharged them to the tune of 30 to 70 percent more than they ought to have. PG&E has already installed about 5.8 million new meters in places like Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley, and the company expects to start installing them in Santa Cruz County and the Bay Area this month. But local leaders are hoping to stop the installations until an independent study ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission is completed that can show if and where the meters’ intelligence is lacking.
“I think PG&E should slow down the installation of the meters and work out any problems before they start installing them,” says Santa Cruz Mayor Mike Rotkin. “These meters have a less-than-sterling reputation.”
Rotkin says the Santa Cruz City Council will soon discuss joining the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco City Council in putting its concerns in writing with a resolution opposing the installations of smart meters until the study is completed – likely by the end of the summer. A spokesman at CPUC, however, says that despite local opposition, meter replacements to Santa Cruz County’s 184,170 gas and electric connections will proceed as planned. Any last minute delay to the installations would need to come at the state level.
On that end, District 27 Assemblymember Bill Monning says he’s concerned with meter inaccuracies as well, but that his main anxiety stems from who can access the bevy of individual information that the devices track, then beam through WiFi into the wild, blue yonder.
He says he plans to support a piece of legislation authored by 16th District State Senator Dean Florez that would force PG&E and other smart meter using companies to guarantee that no one besides the power company and the customer would be able to get a hold of smart meter data.
“This is something I’m very concerned with as a constitutional lawyer,” says Monning, who hopes to vote on the bill – SB 837 – when it comes before the State Assembly, likely in the coming month. “An area of concern would be if this information is sold to other companies. I’m concerned with this technology on a number of levels.”
