Glendale Water and Power, the municipal utility for the city of Glendale, California, is one of the first U.S utilities to connect all of its electric customers using smart grid technology and the first to integrate smart systems for two commodities: electricity and water. The company has more than 84,000 electric and nearly 33,000 water smart meters in operation. The transition to a smart system took about 3 years and was led by Glenn Steiger, Glendale’s general manager. In preparation for an update to Pike Research’s Smart Grid Technology report, I spoke to Steiger about this deployment.

Pike Research: I suspect this transition has been all consuming. When do you declare victory?

Glenn Steiger: It has certainly been fast-paced. Once we have all meters installed, we will begin a two month period of doing parallel readings to confirm operations. But we are by no means “done” at that point. There is now a foundation for several other add-ins. We’re about to start a pilot of distribution automation at one key substation that will run for about 12 months. We intend to install about 10 MW of Ice Bear Energy Storage units distributed over 2,000 sites that Glendale will own and operate. There’s PV to integrate. Lots more to do, so “victory” is not part of my vocabulary.

PR: So let’s go back to the beginning. How and when did the idea of installing a smart grid start?

GS: The idea of a smart grid came about through both necessity and because of our two Korean sister cities. We were looking at ways to increase the overall efficiency of our system, and to deal with some operational issues like outage frequency and water losses. Smart grid came to the top of long-term solutions. About the same time, two of our city councilors traveled to Korea and were impressed with what their utilities were doing using advanced electric system technology. We put a business case together in 2008. In 2009 we applied for a $20 million grant from US DOE and won. In 2010 we completed our proof of concept trials and began an 18 month installation program.

PR: What were the goals of the original business case?

GS: The business case looked at two broad categories of benefits: societal benefits, such as improving customer service and satisfaction, as well as enhancing conservation; and operational benefits such as increasing the efficiency of the distribution network plus reducing outage sizes and duration. What we did not look at and have never really tried to value was any reduction in personnel as a cost savings. Our business case had a payback period of 7 years, which we believe will now be less than 5 years with the DOE grant.

PR: Describe what the system consists of at the moment, and its communications network.

GS: It’s probably best to work from the customer interface. The home network communicates using Zigbee from the meter, in combination with an in-home device for customer interaction. The electric meters use the Itron OpenWay 900 MHz mesh system within the Network Area Network (NAN). The water meters use a different Itron system. Backhaul from the meters to the Wide Area Network (WAN) is handled by a Tropos 900 MHz RF network to communicate with the substations. This system will also be used for distribution automation. Our 13 substations connect via a Wi-Fi network and they connect back to headquarters via a fiber optic system.

PR: Whose in-home device do you use?

GS: We have a unique in-home device produced by a local company, CEIVA. The unit is basically a digital picture frame hung on a wall. It connects both to the Glendale system and in-house sensors using Zigbee and to the internet. The customer can see their meter data and control appliances within the home. When not being used, the customer simply loads whatever picture they want it to display.

PR: What was the toughest part of the whole transition?

GS: Designing and installing the IT infrastructure and enterprise software. This was by far the biggest piece of our overall effort.

PR: How do you measure success?

GS: Internally, we will be taking a careful look at our efficiency in outage management – time to restore power; customers affected; quality of customer service measured by calls received, dropped calls, time of calls. From the customer side we’ll be measuring the overall impact on use patterns and reductions. So far we are seeing a 3% real reduction in peak demand. We expect to improve water losses by 7 percent.

PR: Tell us what your customers have been telling you about smart grid so far.

GS: So far we believe our customers are overwhelmingly supportive. That’s not to say we have not had some vocal groups that were critical of the program, primarily out of concerns relating to exposure to RF signals. Recently there have been a few privacy concerns raised as well. In general, though, our customers are pretty happy. We may not have the average profile of other utilities, though. Glendale has a fairly high percentage of early adopters. In addition, a number of film studios, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Cal Tech are nearby. Their employees are very interested in new technology.

PR: Any thoughts on the future? What’s your crystal ball telling you?

GS: It will be a while before smart grid really begins to happen in the US- at least 5 to 10 years. Like a lot of energy programs in the country, it will be continue to be regional in the absence of any federal policy. Right now maybe two thirds of the east coast, Texas and California are where things are beginning to happen. Smart grids have been mandated for the California IOUs. I do think momentum will pick up in the next 2 to 3 years, though.

There is no question that utilities take an entirely different perspective on how their systems function and operate once they have smart grid capability. One thing we see happening is a lot more networking among utility systems. More and more systems, like EVs or appliances, will be networked in the electric grid simply because now they can be. Much of present day utility-system concepts are already becoming anachronisms.

Article by Gerry Runte, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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In a previous post, I wrote about Texas smart meter company TransData‘s patent infringement suit against CoServ, a Texas utility.

TransData recently extended its patent enforcement activity from Texas in an easterly direction through the southeastern United States, filing complaints against utilities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

The targets are the Alabama Power Company (TransData-AlabamaPower_Complaint), the Georgia Power Company (TransData-GeorgiaPower_Complaint), and the Mississippi Power Company (TransData-MissPower_Complaint).

Each complaint asserts U.S. Patents Nos. 6,181,294 (’294 Patent), 6,462,713 (’713 Patent) and 6,903,699 (’699 Patent), which relate to antenna and wireless communication devices for use with electric meters.

The ’294, ’713 and ’699 Patents are related patents which trace back to an original 1998 filing date. They describe early solutions for wireless transmission of electrical consumption data.

In particular, the patents are directed to electric meters (100) and an antenna (170, 270) for use with the electric meters. The antenna includes antenna elements (172, 174, 272, 274) located within a dielectric housing (120, 220) and a balance circuit (176, 276).

The balance circuit (176, 276) mechanically supports the antenna elements (172, 174, 272, 274) so the antenna elements can cooperate and act as a dipole.

According to the patents’ specification:

The present invention . . . introduces the broad concept of outfitting an electric meter with an internal, wireless communications antenna, allowing the electric meter circuitry within the meter to communicate via a data network wirelessly couplable thereto.

According to the complaints, the devices that infringe or may infringe the asserted patents are Sensus iCon electric meters, Elster Alpha A3 and REX electric meters, and meters with SmartSynch wireless modules.

With these three new complaints, there are now at least six pending TransData infringement suits involving the same patents. In addition to the CoServ case, the new complaints list two other cases in the Eastern District of Texas against CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric and Tri-County Electric Cooperative.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

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Why do so many energy insiders insist that home energy automation will fail? Many whom I respect say the typical householder will never take the time to fiddle with smart gadgets that reduce energy costs.

Their skepticism, however, just elicits a verbal shrug from Peter Porteous, CEO of Blue Line Innovations, maker of the PowerCost Monitor, one of the many devices hitting the market to help homeowners manage their energy.

Porteous sees things differently because he spent several years selling products in other industries. Smart energy devices, he says, are really no different than food, automotives or any other consumer item.

“We are no different than any other market. The text book tells it all. First there are the early adopters, and you gradually move through the product lifecycle to where there is mass adoption. Business models evolve, and products evolve, and gradually you make yourself more appealing to a wider segment of the population. There are no surprises here,” he told me by phone this week.

We’ll know soon if he’s right. The company has worked with about 125 utilities on various pilots and projects since it was formed about seven years ago. But it’s not relying solely on that channel to get its product out. Blue Line is testing its ability to thrive in the mass market by offering its energy display monitor directly to consumers in stores like Lowes and Frys.

The PowerCost Monitor’s bragging rights are that it’s relatively cheap (about $100 for a basic model), easy to install (no electrician required), and does not rely on a smart meter. In fact, Porteous says the system works with 90 percent of existing meters, even the old-fashion analog kind. A sensor placed on the home’s meter reads your electricity usage and transmits it wirelessly to a handheld display inside the house. The display shows how much electricity you’re using both in kilowatt-hours and in dollars and cents. A more advanced cloud-based system (about $229) lets consumers slice and dice their home energy use and pinpoint the appliances that are energy hogs. The technology is increasingly moving away from the displays and toward use of cell phones, making it easy to monitor energy usage while away from home.

Porteous also is nonplussed by Google and Microsoft’s recent decision to quit the home energy display market. Skeptics cited the back-to-back departure of the two giants as evidence that smart grid devices have no place in the home. But again Porteous sees the event as a function of a normal market. Smart energy is non-core to Google and Microsoft, and “it is just the natural course of companies in harder times to focus their resources,” he says.

Their departure was something of a blow to Blue Line, since it used the Google and Microsoft applications with its hardware. However, Blue Line was already well on its way to launching a third option offered by People Power when the giants announced they were transitioning out. “The impact was quite minimal,” he says.

So will Blue Line prove that the home energy skeptics are off base? We’ll see. In the meantime, we should probably cut the skeptics some slack. Innovation is new to the electric industry. Those who frequent energy conferences have heard the line many times that while Alexander Graham Bell would be shocked at the changes made to telephones, and barely recognize the technology, Thomas Edison could pretty much pick up where he left off if he were to return today. But if Porteous and his competitors have their way, we’ll have a pair of bewildered ghosts.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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Earlier this month, Silver Spring Networks filed an S-1 for its long anticipated IPO. It was so long anticipated that many had about given up, but through a series of smart grid acquisitions, including Toshiba’s pending payout for Landis+Gyr, we had renewed speculation.

Expected pricing for the IPO was not announced, but the $3 billion target valuation rumored at the beginning of 2010 would seem rich given the $2.3 billion price for the more diverse Landis+Gyr, and the current $1.8-2 billion valuations for Elster (who IPO’ed last fall) and for industry powerhouse Itron. It could be argued that these valuations are not really comparable, since Silver Spring Networks is focused on the “smart” part of smart metering, namely the communications infrastructure and associated software, while Landis+Gyr, Elster, and Itron have significant legacy metering businesses. Certainly, Silver Spring Networks impressive revenue growth rate exceeds these competitors, and it has maintained the number one position in our U.S. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) utility vendor selection tracking since we started. Still, each Silver Spring Networks AMI module is ultimately housed in a smart meter (typically from Landis+Gyr or General Electric) with roughly twice the value, something that Itron, Landis+Gyr, and Sensus are able to harvest.

Silver Spring Networks’ undisputed lead in U.S. utility AMI was built by its strong commitment to the IP communications protocol at a time when competitor’s products were universally proprietary. This success drove a dramatic change in the industry, where virtually all AMI vendors have now adopted the IP protocol in one way or another. This has not yet approached the goal of multi-vendor interoperability for smart meters, as key parts of even the Silver Spring Networks implementation, such as the “meshing” protocols, are “pre-standard” (i.e. proprietary). Itron, leveraging its existing Automated Meter Reading (AMR) dominance, established an early AMI lead with its OpenWay system, but was especially hurt by the strength of Silver Spring Networks’ IP story. This was the catalyst for the Itron/Cisco partnership that may yet position Itron to ultimately “out IP” Silver Spring. Certainly, the competition is getting fiercer, but it remains a game of catch-up to Silver Spring Networks.

All the smart meter and AMI vendors are faced with some daunting challenges. The U.S. AMI market is currently in full deployment mode, initiated by regulatory mandates in Texas, California, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, and fueled by $3.5 billion in stimulus funding. But we have long forecasted that this party will subside in the not-too-distant future, as smart meters approach their terminal penetration rate of the overall electric meter installed base, which in itself is not growing much. Continued growth will require diversification in target markets (i.e. beyond electric AMI), products (software and services), and/or geography (i.e. Europe, Latin America, Asia).

Perhaps herein is Silver Spring Networks’ greatest opportunity. They pioneered and preached the ability of an IP-based networking platform to unleash all kinds of high-value applications that will bring life to the smart grid, paralleling how open IP networking is the foundation for today’s internet culture. Who better to deliver on that promise by leveraging the infrastructure that they themselves are building for their customers? Demand response, distribution automation, electric vehicle integration, and managed services are among the smart grid applications that are in their sights. No doubt, these are different businesses and technologies, but it would seem Silver Spring Networks is reasonably well positioned to benefit, even if more than 90 percent of current revenues are AMI hardware and software based.

So whether Silver Spring Networks ultimately IPOs or gets scooped up in the current acquisition frenzy, it promises to be an interesting journey.

Article by Bob Gohn, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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Last week, temperatures soared into the triple digits, reaching record highs for the Twin Cities. After a wicked winter, I actually welcomed the heat with open arms. That is, until the temperature inside my house hit a steamy 86 degrees – even with curtains closed and fans circulating. And while I pride myself on keeping an energy efficient – and comfortable – home, I was in a bit of a pickle.

With the fans not cutting it and no central air on which to rely, my only other option to beat the heat was a lone window air conditioning unit. I sat on my couch for several minutes, contemplating my (limited) options. Do I flip the switch and let the cool air rush in, or do I tough it out?

As sweat ran down my face in a steady stream, I caved. I also had to think of my three young kids – it was simply too hot not to do anything. And while the cool air felt good, all I could think about was how much my decision was going to cost me.

But is it odd to think that way? Can’t I just sit back and enjoy the comfort of the cooler air without worrying about the impact my air conditioner was having on my electric bill?

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

The Nielsen Company conducted a recent survey that found nearly half of residential electricity customers would be willing to pay for access to smart meter usage date, such as hourly energy usage and consumption data on individual appliances – e.g. an air conditioning unit.

Other survey findings revealed that 15 percent of the population would pay up to $10 a month for “smart meter” data, an indication of just how valuable consumers believe this kind of information can be.

I, for one, agree this information is a valuable asset. And while I’m not sure how much extra I’d be willing to pay for this kind of information, I do know I would put it to good use. In this instance, it may not have changed my decision to use my air conditioner. But at least I would be armed with the information for use in the future.

So tell me, would you pay for a “smart meter” service? If so, how often do you think you would use it?

Article by Tim Laughlin, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

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The long rumored acquisition of L+G by Toshiba has finally happened. It appears Bayard Group, the investment group that assembled the current incarnation of L+G from more than five companies, got their price ($2.3 billion) without the originally anticipated IPO, making their investors happy. Perhaps it is fitting that L+G have been picked up by a Japanese company, as this effectively rounds out the regional scope of the U.S. and European components from which L+G was built. So does this make L+G the first truly global smart grid company?

Well, no, not really, but the answer hinges on the definition of “smart grid.” Certainly companies like GE, ABB, Siemens, and even Toshiba itself, would validly claim a long-term global presence in grid infrastructure, including smart technologies. But if the definition includes smart metering, then we might have to say “maybe.” Prior to Bayard assembling the various pieces that become the “new” L+G, metering was largely a regional business. By combining L+G, Cellnet, Hunt, and a number of other firms, L+G became one of the first to seek synergies between regions – specifically North America and Europe – for smart metering. The resulting L+G corporate rationalization was a bit rocky and not without challenges, but it did ultimately result in a single integrated company, even if the smart meter market remains regionally fragmented. The Itron-Actaris merger, and similar moves by Elster, also aimed to create global scale (or at least North and South America + Europe). As part of Toshiba, L+G have the potential to accelerate smart metering growth in Asian markets, while Toshiba may leverage L+G’s relationships in North American markets.

Success here is not automatic. The big prize in Asia, of course, is China. Pike Research estimates that China will consume an average of 30 million smart meters per year over the next three years, almost three times the number in North America. Although Toshiba has a significant presence in China and L+G has made some progress with C&I meters, China has been effectively closed to all but indigenous Chinese meter vendors.

Why is globalization so important for smart meter makers? It comes down to the numbers. Unlike other high-growth high-tech items such as cell phone and PCs, the ultimate installed base of electric meters is relatively static – no need for multiple meters per household or per person. And even if smart meter lifecycles end up being shorter than the simple meters they replace, they are still far longer than other high-tech devices. So the current out-of-cycle upgrades to the electric meter installed base that is driving growth within each region will ultimately be followed by a valley where meter sales may be below the traditional once-every-twenty-years replacement rate. Pike Research has been forecasting a North American peak for 2012-2013, so a declining – though still robust – North American smart meter market is already in sight. Europe is forecasted to pick-up the pace in the second half of the decade, with overlapping and extended growth from Asia. So without a global presence, smart meter vendors will be looking at dividing up a smaller pie.

This trend may be impacting the other anticipated 2010 smart grid IPO that didn’t happen: Silver Spring Networks. Rumored to be seeking a $3 billion valuation, and without L+G’s global exposure (or revenue), the $2.3 billion sales price paid by Toshiba is likely disappointing. An interesting question is whether other Asian giants, such as Fujitsu, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, all of whom likely have some level of interest in Smart Grid technologies, will feel compelled to make a similar move.

In the meantime, we expect that Toshiba will mostly leave the existing L+G structure alone and L+G customers should be comforted by Toshiba’s financial backing. How longer term potential market, regional, or technical synergies work out will be interesting to watch.

Article by Bob Gohn, appearing courtesy the Matter Network

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Dynamic pricing schemes are viewed as one of the key utility tools for reducing peak load during the summer, which is growing over time. Such pricing schemes, which adjust the price of electricity based on the time of day and the cost of generating electricity during different time periods, are on the rise throughout the United States.

Such schemes come in a number of different flavors, including time-of-use (TOU) pricing (the most common), critical peak pricing (CPP), real time pricing, and others. The idea is to create a financial incentive for end users to shift portions of their energy consumption from peak times to off-peak times. When these programs result in demand reductions, utilities can more easily manage power generation assets, transmission, and delivery, ultimately making electricity as a whole less expensive to produce.

The commercial sector, characterized by large, centrally-managed electricity-consuming equipment and flexible electricity use schedules, has been the main beneficiary of dynamic pricing to date. The residential sector, in contrast, has been harder to penetrate for a number of reasons.

At least one of the barriers to dynamic pricing in the residential sector – a lack of advanced metering infrastructure – is set to change in the near term. By 2013, over 90 percent of residential customers in Texas will be served by smart meters and a number of other states have comparably aggressive plans underway. Without smart meters, dynamic pricing is impossible to implement (with the exception of night-and-day meters, which are less common). As smart meters penetrate residential end-points, a growing candidate pool of residential customers will be in a position to opt into TOU pricing and other schemes.

Some of the other barriers may be more difficult to address in the short term, but industry experts are optimistic that they will be addressed. One is the perception that the relatively small size of customer electricity accounts and the small difference between today’s static electricity prices and off-peak electricity prices under TOU schemes will leave customers with little incentive to switch to dynamic pricing schemes voluntarily.

I recently had the chance to catch up with Ahmad Faruqui, president of the Brattle Group, on this very topic. His group’s analysis of dynamic pricing pilots around the United States has found that customers do, in fact, respond to dynamic pricing schemes and have been able to save money as well as reduce system load as a whole. Within pricing schemes, critical peak pricing tends to yield the most dramatic peak load reductions.

Still, dynamic pricing schemes have been slow to take off. Many utilities offer them. For example, PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E all offer opt-in time of use pricing to customers. In Texas, retail electricity providers (REPs) including TXU, Reliant, and Nations Power offer TOU or real-time pricing plans. But customer uptake of these programs has remained slow despite the energy saving potential.

As advanced metering infrastructure is rolled out on a broader scale and as increasingly savvy customers look to save money on energy bills through dynamic pricing, we’ll see more interest in these programs.

Article by Eric Bloom, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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We’ve been hearing for years that the energy efficiency industry needs to find its equivalent to the cell phone. These days industry folks refer to it as the ‘killer app,” the revolutionary product or service that consumers can’t resist.

But lately, partly because I’m dieting, I’ve been thinking what energy efficiency really needs is something akin to a Weight Watchers dessert.

Let me explain myself.

Saving energy and saving calories share three precepts. They are most palatable to the consumer if they are devoid of self-sacrifice, appear invisible, and offer some element of delight. Weight Watchers has got these down cold. The energy efficiency industry is doing well with the first and second, but not the third.

No self-sacrifice
Weight Watchers is ingenious because it does not describe itself as a diet; it’s a lifestyle, a way of eating. It’s not about self-sacrifice. Sound familiar? The energy efficiency industry over the last decade shook off the ‘conservation’ moniker, much the way Weight Watcher abandoned the term ‘diet.’

The Alliance to Save Energy describes the difference between energy efficiency and conservation beautifully on its website:

But energy efficiency is a far cry from the energy conservation images and practices of old – of doing with less or doing without, of being uncomfortable or less comfortable. Not unlike the tremendous technological strides on the computer, electronics, and other fronts, energy efficiency takes advantage of advances in technology to provide significantly better, smarter services.

Invisible
On Weight Watchers you still can eat the macaroni and cheese. But it’s made with low fat milk. The calorie savings become invisible to me. Likewise, consumers can be energy efficient and still use their air conditioners and televisions as much as before. Appliance standards are the low fat milk of the energy industry. If you wonder about the significance of these standards read the efficiency section of the US Energy Information Administration’s recently released Annual Energy Outlook 2011. The report forecasts a 17% drop in residential per capita energy use through 2035 and says appliance standards often are “the primary reason for efficiency gains.” The currently controversial lighting standards create the biggest energy savings (See EIA chart below.)

Delight
This one is easy for Weight Watchers. It offers wonderful little chocolate cakes that bring delight to the sweet tooth. But what is energy efficiency’s chocolate cake? Herein rests the problem for the industry. The cell phone, the IPod, the home computer – these technologies were readily adapted because of the delight and convenience they add to our lives. As far as I can tell, neither the smart meter nor any of the other energy savings technologies being offered for the home offer any of this kind of allure. Some folks in the energy industry say they never will because information technology and energy technology part ways here. They may be right. But I remain hopeful. Those who had the first home computers (mine was a DEC Rainbow 100) may remember that they offered far more in the way of frustration than fun or inconvenience. These early computers left critics of the industry doubtful that widespread penetration of home computers would ever occur….and we all know how that all ended.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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TransData is a Texas company that designs and manufactures smart meters and related products.

TransData owns U.S. Patents Nos. 6,181,294 (’294 Patent), 6,462,713 (’713 Patent) and 6,903,699 (’699 Patent), which relate to antenna and wireless communication devices for use with electric meters.

Last month TransData sued CoServ, a Texas utility, for infringement of the ’294, ’713 and ’699 Patents. According to the complaint (TransData-Complaint), filed in federal court in Tyler, Texas, CoServ is infringing these patents by using and selling the Landis+Gyr Focus AX electric meter.

The ’294, ’713 and ’699 Patents are related patents which trace back to an original 1998 filing date. They describe early solutions for wireless transmission of electrical consumption data.

In particular, the patents are directed to electric meters (100) and an antenna (170, 270) for use with the electric meters. The antenna includes antenna elements (172, 174, 272, 274) located within a dielectric housing (120, 220) and a balance circuit (176, 276).

The balance circuit (176, 276) mechanically supports the antenna elements (172, 174, 272, 274) so the antenna elements can cooperate and act as a dipole.

According to the patents’ specification:

The present invention . . . introduces the broad concept of outfitting an electric meter with an internal, wireless communications antenna, allowing the electric meter circuitry within the meter to communicate via a data network wirelessly couplable thereto.

Like the seminal variable speed wind turbine patent involved in the recent GE-Mitsubishi litigation, the patents in this suit are an example of mature clean technologies in the courtroom.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

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Last December, I moved into one of the most expensive places in the world to live, the gated community known as “Seadrift” in Stinson Beach, Marin County. I can count Senator Diane Feinstein and Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh as neighbors (though they only sneak out here upon occasion.)

The move ended up being a disaster on many fronts. Frequent internet woes, TV cable glitches, phone problems, and even a flea infestation (that required specialists and steroids), all plagued life in this beautiful spot nestled within nature preserves at the edge of the world.

But these inconveniences pale compare to what happened next, when I opened my first bill for my new home from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and saw that I allegedly owed $1,700 for electricity consumption that the stretched all the way back to December 2, 2010. When I called up PG&E, I found out that another bill was being sent the very next day that would add another $1,000 to my debt, which had within a very short amount of time ballooned into a $2,700 obligation.

There’s plenty of blame to go around, but my situation sums up the disappointing reality of where the super-hyped “smart grid” actually is today, putting aside all of the concerns about wireless radiation, privacy, and data security that have led to blockades in my own backyard. Let’s just focus on the bottom line for a moment.

PG&E installed a Silver Springs wireless smart meter last October. The nice lady on the phone at PG&E pointed out that she could see how my energy had spiked upon several days and that she suggested I move. I agreed with her at first, but as I put down the phone I started thinking about how ridiculous this situation was.

The reason my bill had been delayed for so long was that the readings were so abnormally high, so PG&E sent out a live human to check the meter. If I had received a normal bill at the end of December, I could have acted accordingly. My response to PG&E was simple: If the purpose of a smart grid is to give consumers signals so that they can adjust their behaviors and tweak technologies accordingly, then what good did this smart meter do?

The PG&E representative pointed out that if I had been set up to watch my energy usage online, I could have found out about this looming financial catastrophe much sooner. Oh, she then told me that aspect of the smart grid service wasn’t set up yet. (An insider at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) told me PG&E is way behind in offering this one aspect of their smart grid roll-out focused on consumers – and not the utility – compared to the state’s other utilities.) Of course, if someone like me that is an energy expert can’t seem to find the time to be switching devices on and off and then going outside in the pouring rain to try and read a confusing smart meter to try and figure out what’s drawing so much juice, who will?

After raising this seemingly logical concern to four successive PG&E managers on the phone as I moved up the management chain, they finally agreed to send somebody out to make sure the meter was working properly. But I was told this person would not be able to help me reduce energy or pinpoint the source of high energy use. An “energy specialist” then called me on a Friday just as she was leaving the office, and told me to call her over the weekend, as she wanted to be in contact with me ASAP. I did call with no response. Five days have passed since she called.

I then turned to the landlord. After moving in, a fellow from a heating and cooling company did drop by to check out why one of the heaters wasn’t working. His advice: Don’t turn these electric-water heat floorboards on and off too much, because they’ll probably break. “Just keep them down low, because once the water is heated, they stay warm.” He assured my partner and her daughter that they didn’t really use that much electricity anyways. I worried about this advice – knowing how expensive electric heat can be – but life got busier and busier and I told myself we’ll just see what the bill looks like to see if what this heating contractor said was actually accurate. In the back of my mind, I kept wondering when that bill would come. But as anyone who has been a writer can attest, these are the sorts of things that fall through the cracks when one is under deadline after deadline after deadline.

Once I got the enormous bill, I spoke to the heating company again. He assured me that the advice of his fellow co-worker was all really relative. “Your landlord should get rid of those dinosaur devices and spend $10,000 to switch to propane.” Great advice, but that doesn’t help me now, or going forward as the landlord just sunk $50,000 into this place to fix up the exterior and has no interest in fixing a problem that costs her nothing. The same contractor told me that PG&E’s smart meters appeared to be having some peculiar problems with these sorts of heating systems, anyways, and that he had heard of a bill over $3,000. For some reason, this news did not make me feel any better.

With this unexpected debt now hanging over my head, I decided it was time to live like an Eskimo and just forget heat. Enough sweaters and caps out to do the trick. I’ll look for the long underwear I used to have to wear when I lived In Wisconsin. Winter can’t last forever.

Turns out I couldn’t turn off one of the electric-water heaters and had to go flip the circuit-breakers to adjust the temperatures. How long had this heater been running at full-blast? PG&E’s smart meter certainly wasn’t going to be able to tell me.

When PG&E’s comes out to check the meter, I was informed they won’t be able to tell me why the bills are high or offer me any tips or solutions. Here I am in California, one of the most progressive states in the nation when it comes to energy efficiency and the much hyped “smart grid” and I have no choice but to keeping paying the piper. I just have one dumb question for PG&E: How are these smart meters supposed to help consumers respond to price signals when we don’t know even when their bills are going through the roof until months after the fact?

Apparently, PG&E may have broken some laws by not sending me a timely bill. I’ll let you all know what happens in a future blog post.

Article by Peter Asmus, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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