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<p class="current_date">Thursday, March 24, 2011</p>
<h1>PG&E's SmartMeter Plan: Opt Out, Pay a Premium</h1>
Customers who choose to turn off radio signals could pay as much as
$270 up front plus $14 a month<br>
By: <a href="http://www.baycitizen.org/profiles/john-upton/">John
Upton</a><br>
<br>
<p>Pacific Gas and Electric Company plans to charge customers
hundreds of dollars on top of their regular gas and electricity
bills if they choose to switch off radio signals emitted by
SmartMeters, which are being installed in businesses and homes
throughout Northern California.</p>
<p>SmartMeters are being installed by PG&E as part of an
industry-led effort to replace the nation's aging electrical
infrastructure with digital equipment that can track and manage
customers' energy consumption. Already, PG&E has replaced 7.7
million analog electricity and gas meters with the new devices.</p>
<p>Following years of public outcry about rollout of the meters,
which some customers say have caused serious illnesses and
incorrect energy consumption readings, the California Public
Utilities Commission earlier this month <a
href="http://www.baycitizen.org/pge/story/pge-customers-can-now-opt-out/"
target="_blank">ordered PG&E to allow customers to opt out</a>
of using the technology. </p>
<p>PG&E submitted a proposal to the CPUC Thursday that, instead
of allowing customers to continue using analog meters, would see
radio signals switched off from their SmartMeters. The SmartMeters
would continue to monitor a customers' energy use, but they would
not transmit the results to PG&E through radio signals.
Instead, a PG&E official would visit the customers' home to
manually read the meter for billing purposes.</p>
<p>Customers who select the “radio-off” option would pay a $135
up-front fee followed by a $20 monthly charge, or a $270 up-front
fee followed by a $14 monthly charge, PG&E proposed.
Low-income customers would pay 20 percent less.</p>
<p>Instead of the fixed monthly fee, customers could choose to pay a
monthly rate that varies with the amount of gas and electricity
that they use. That option could be less expensive for customers
who use little electricity or gas.<strong></strong></p>
<p>PG&E justified the seemingly high rates by saying that its
anticipated costs in deploying the “radio-off” option for an
expected 146,000 opt-out customers would exceed $80 million over
two years.</p>
<p>"We wanted to make sure that those who elected that option would
bear the costs associated with that option, as opposed to the rest
of our customers," PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said.</p>
<p>The opt-out program costs will include expenses associated with
turning customers’ SmartMeter radios off; switching radios back on
if customers change their mind or new tenants move into the
premises<strong></strong>; modifying PG&E’s existing
SmartMeter-related information technology programs and radio
networks; and communicating with customers about alternatives to
the opt-out option, PG&E told the CPUC in <a
href="http://bayc.it/dDpY/" target="_blank">the proposal</a>.</p>
<p>Consumer advocates, meanwhile, characterized the rates as just
another cash grab by a malevolent corporate monopoly.</p>
<p>“I’m definitely going to ask for the data to support their
forecasts for how much it’s going to cost to do all this stuff,”
said Marcel Hawiger, energy attorney for The Utility Reform
Network, a consumer watchdog.</p>
<p>Hawiger said that PG&E should give its customers the option
of reading their own meters instead of paying PG&E a monthly
fee. Some customers with dogs and fences already read their own
meters, he said, suggesting that program be expanded.</p>
<p>Public hearings will be held in the coming months to discuss the
proposal, and a CPUC ruling on PG&E's proposed opt-out pricing
system is expected by mid-September.<br>
</p>
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