PG&E made the headlines of today’s San Jose Mercury, as the California Public Utilities Commission ordered this investor-owned utility to devise ways for customers to refuse smart meters. The intent of this order is to placate critics of the meters who have expressed concerns over accuracy of these devices and the potential health effects of the radio frequency emissions.
As background, PG&E has been busy deploying 10 to 15k meters per day and are about 77% complete in their goal to have their 10 million gas and electric meters converted to smart ones by mid-2012. The benefits to the consumers and society are a more efficient grid. Additionally, intelligence at the edge is mandatory for the integration of consumers as energy sources (e.g. rooftop solar feeding the grid) as well as widespread deployment of electric transportation.
In this interview, Andrew Tang suggests that one thing PG&E overlooked, when they started this program, is that meters, unlike other outside plant equipment like poles and wires, represent a personal interaction with the customer. He cited the importance of educating the customer in the benefits of the program, particularly as it relates to the bigger picture of efficiency. Tang points out the challenge of when and how best to educate the customer on a technology that rolls out over time; similar to the challenges operators face when deploying Fiber to the Home technologies.
This is part 1 of a two-part interview and was part of ViodiTV coverage of Parks Associates' 2011 Smart Energy Summit.