Friday, September 24, 2010
Smart Meter moratorium requested by Texas senator
Smart Meter moratorium requested by Texas senator: WFAA-TV, Dallas
Who Owns Oncor?
From the Dallas Business Journal:
Oncor Electric Delivery is the electricity transmission subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings.
Private equity firms TPG Capital, Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co. and Goldman Sachs created Energy Future Holdings by acquiring North Texas utility business TXU Corp. in October 2007. The $45 billion deal (including assumed debt) is the largest leveraged buyout in history.
Oncor Electric Delivery is the electricity transmission subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings.
Private equity firms TPG Capital, Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co. and Goldman Sachs created Energy Future Holdings by acquiring North Texas utility business TXU Corp. in October 2007. The $45 billion deal (including assumed debt) is the largest leveraged buyout in history.
Oncor Electric names chief customer officer
Texas electricity transmission business Oncor Electric Delivery has appointed a chief customer officer to help it improve relations with its 7 million customers.
Brenda Jackson, formerly a senior vice president in charge of operations, is taking on that newly created title.
Jackson has worked for Oncor and its predecessor companies for 36 years.
"I plan to do a lot of listening initially," she said in a telephone interview. She said she'll be listening to see how the company can better communicate with its customers.
The move comes after big winter power outages, and a difficult deployment of high-tech smart meters. Some Oncor customers have complained of big jumps in their power bills after the new meters were put in place.
“Recent events have shown us that we need to reinforce our relationship with the people we serve and step up and help them,” Oncor Chairman and CEO Bob Shapard said in a press release. “Customers told us they need us. We’re listening and changing.”
The change will only come about as Oncor adjusts its culture to be more customer-centered, Jackson said. One of her goals is to make Oncor employees feel more comfortable talking to customers.
The company also is working to do a better job of communicating information during power outages, and educating customers on how consumers can benefit from smart meters.
"We're returning to the experience I had when I first came to Dallas Power & Light Co.," Jackson said. "Not a single decision got made at the company that didn't take the customer into consideration."
Oncor Electric Delivery is the electricity transmission subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings.
Private equity firms TPG Capital, Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co. and Goldman Sachs created Energy Future Holdings by acquiring North Texas utility business TXU Corp. in October 2007. The $45 billion deal (including assumed debt) is the largest leveraged buyout in history.
The new ownership group cut TXU into three pieces: electric generation (Luminant), retail electricity (TXU Energy) and transmission (Oncor).
(From Dallas Business Journal)
Brenda Jackson, formerly a senior vice president in charge of operations, is taking on that newly created title.
Jackson has worked for Oncor and its predecessor companies for 36 years.
"I plan to do a lot of listening initially," she said in a telephone interview. She said she'll be listening to see how the company can better communicate with its customers.
The move comes after big winter power outages, and a difficult deployment of high-tech smart meters. Some Oncor customers have complained of big jumps in their power bills after the new meters were put in place.
“Recent events have shown us that we need to reinforce our relationship with the people we serve and step up and help them,” Oncor Chairman and CEO Bob Shapard said in a press release. “Customers told us they need us. We’re listening and changing.”
The change will only come about as Oncor adjusts its culture to be more customer-centered, Jackson said. One of her goals is to make Oncor employees feel more comfortable talking to customers.
The company also is working to do a better job of communicating information during power outages, and educating customers on how consumers can benefit from smart meters.
"We're returning to the experience I had when I first came to Dallas Power & Light Co.," Jackson said. "Not a single decision got made at the company that didn't take the customer into consideration."
Oncor Electric Delivery is the electricity transmission subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings.
Private equity firms TPG Capital, Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co. and Goldman Sachs created Energy Future Holdings by acquiring North Texas utility business TXU Corp. in October 2007. The $45 billion deal (including assumed debt) is the largest leveraged buyout in history.
The new ownership group cut TXU into three pieces: electric generation (Luminant), retail electricity (TXU Energy) and transmission (Oncor).
(From Dallas Business Journal)
Texas Lawsuit Tossed
In a wave of bad news for smart meters this summer, finally some good news. Smart Grid Today reports that on Aug. 13, Texas Civil District Court judge Lorraine Raggio dismissed a class action lawsuit against Oncor that accused the utility’s new smart meters of overcharging customers. Raggio ruled that the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) was the proper venue for judging smart meters’ accuracy, or lack thereof. Unless the plaintiffs successfully appeal the ruling, it appears that utility regulators, not a judge or jury, will have the final say on the matter.
State PUC’s haven’t been the most friendly venues for utility smart meter plans lately (see Baltimore Gas & Electric). But Oncor does have a study verifying that the vast majority of its meters are working accurately to back it up. That independent analysis (pdf) by Navigant Consulting found that Oncor’s smart meters, mostly made by Landis+Gyr and supported by IBM and meter data management software startup Ecologic Analytics performed to a high degree of accuracy. The report also gave a clean bill of health to smart meters being deployed by CenterPoint and AEP.
California utility Pacific Gas & Electric is facing a similar class-action lawsuit, and the California PUC has announced plans (pdf) to reveal a similar report on PG&E’s smart meter accuracy on Thursday. PG&E spokesman Kenny Boyles said Monday that a state judge has said he’d like to see the report before he makes further rulings on the PG&E customer lawsuit. Whether or not the Texas decision plays into the future of the California lawsuit remains to be seen.
One thing’s for sure — both Oncor and PG&E are paying a lot more attention to customers when it comes to their multi-million smart meter plans. Oncor admitted early on that human error and less-than-stellar customer support played a role in upsetting new smart meter-enabled customers. PG&E has beefed up its customer relations to include a dedicated smart meter hotline and walk-in centers in Oakland, Fresno and, of course, Bakersfield, the home of the customers at the center of the class-action lawsuit.
It will be interesting to see how the Texas ruling affects smart meter deployments elsewhere. It’s almost certain that utilities would much rather argue their smart meter cases to the state regulators they’re used to dealing with, rather than a potentially hostile court system. However, those same utility commissions are increasingly demanding that utilities find a way to avoid putting the costs of smart meter upgrades on consumers, as recent decisions in Maryland and Hawaii point out.
To read all of my daily curated news links, my weekly column and my research reports check out the Green IT page on GigaOM Pro.
(From Gigaom.com)
State PUC’s haven’t been the most friendly venues for utility smart meter plans lately (see Baltimore Gas & Electric). But Oncor does have a study verifying that the vast majority of its meters are working accurately to back it up. That independent analysis (pdf) by Navigant Consulting found that Oncor’s smart meters, mostly made by Landis+Gyr and supported by IBM and meter data management software startup Ecologic Analytics performed to a high degree of accuracy. The report also gave a clean bill of health to smart meters being deployed by CenterPoint and AEP.
California utility Pacific Gas & Electric is facing a similar class-action lawsuit, and the California PUC has announced plans (pdf) to reveal a similar report on PG&E’s smart meter accuracy on Thursday. PG&E spokesman Kenny Boyles said Monday that a state judge has said he’d like to see the report before he makes further rulings on the PG&E customer lawsuit. Whether or not the Texas decision plays into the future of the California lawsuit remains to be seen.
One thing’s for sure — both Oncor and PG&E are paying a lot more attention to customers when it comes to their multi-million smart meter plans. Oncor admitted early on that human error and less-than-stellar customer support played a role in upsetting new smart meter-enabled customers. PG&E has beefed up its customer relations to include a dedicated smart meter hotline and walk-in centers in Oakland, Fresno and, of course, Bakersfield, the home of the customers at the center of the class-action lawsuit.
It will be interesting to see how the Texas ruling affects smart meter deployments elsewhere. It’s almost certain that utilities would much rather argue their smart meter cases to the state regulators they’re used to dealing with, rather than a potentially hostile court system. However, those same utility commissions are increasingly demanding that utilities find a way to avoid putting the costs of smart meter upgrades on consumers, as recent decisions in Maryland and Hawaii point out.
To read all of my daily curated news links, my weekly column and my research reports check out the Green IT page on GigaOM Pro.
(From Gigaom.com)
Oncor discounts lawsuit alleging
California PUC chooses evaluator of PG&E meters
A second lawsuit, this one in Texas, has been filed over alleged inaccuracies of smart meters. The class action, called Cordts v. Oncor Electric Delivery, was filed Friday in Texas' state trial court. A similar suit, Flores v. PG&E, is pending in California state court (SGT, Mar-17) – and California's PUC has selected an independent investigator of PG&E's smart meters.
The Texas suit aims to "address and rectify the fraudulent, deceptive and discriminatory fleecing of Texas consumers by… Oncor," the unusually vigorous complaint said. The plaintiffs, represented by Jason Berent of Dallas' Berent & Wilson, had predictable electric bills of $400-700/month before Oncor installed a smart meter at their home, according to the suit. After the meters were installed, the same customers received bills totaling about $5,000 over three months.
Oncor has about one month to respond to the suit.
The suit's claims are false, Chris Schein, an Oncor spokesman, told us yesterday. "It's full of hyperbole and misstatements designed to garner media attention as opposed to addressing the facts," he added.
Consumers were “tired of being told that a 200% overnight increase in their electric bill following installation of a 'smart' meter is due to an 'unusually cold winter' or a change in their energy consumption choices," the suit said, asserting that Oncor “sought to bamboozle the public with smoke and mirrors.”
Oncor aimed its installation of smart meters, numbering nearly 829,000 to date, at some of its most economically disadvantaged customers, the suit asserted. Customers living in wealthier service areas are not scheduled to get the meters until 2012, it said.
The suit alleged fraud by non-disclosure and negligence. Berent created a website with the intent of finding more prospective litigants.
California move
The Structure Group, of Houston, will perform a $1.4 million independent evaluation of PG&E's smart meters, California's PUC told the press yesterday.
Allegedly inflated readings by those meters have led to numerous customer complaints, town meetings and a lawsuit.
Two state senators who noticed high energy bills at about the same time PG&E installed smart meters in the San Joaquin Valley led the move to hire an independent investigator.
Structure won the bid because it "demonstrated excellent skills and experience" in dealing with smart metering technologies, designing inquiries and investigations and acting as a prime contractor, the PUC said in a prepared statement. Structure is set to spend about four months on the investigation.
The PUC on Nov 20 voted to approve the expedited hiring of an investigator. It first put out a solicitation Dec 7. Its first choice earlier this month declined to sign on because of a contractual dispute.
PG&E continues "to wholeheartedly support the CPUC's independent third-party evaluation," the utility said yesterday in a prepared statement.
(From SmartGridToday.com)
A second lawsuit, this one in Texas, has been filed over alleged inaccuracies of smart meters. The class action, called Cordts v. Oncor Electric Delivery, was filed Friday in Texas' state trial court. A similar suit, Flores v. PG&E, is pending in California state court (SGT, Mar-17) – and California's PUC has selected an independent investigator of PG&E's smart meters.
The Texas suit aims to "address and rectify the fraudulent, deceptive and discriminatory fleecing of Texas consumers by… Oncor," the unusually vigorous complaint said. The plaintiffs, represented by Jason Berent of Dallas' Berent & Wilson, had predictable electric bills of $400-700/month before Oncor installed a smart meter at their home, according to the suit. After the meters were installed, the same customers received bills totaling about $5,000 over three months.
Oncor has about one month to respond to the suit.
The suit's claims are false, Chris Schein, an Oncor spokesman, told us yesterday. "It's full of hyperbole and misstatements designed to garner media attention as opposed to addressing the facts," he added.
Consumers were “tired of being told that a 200% overnight increase in their electric bill following installation of a 'smart' meter is due to an 'unusually cold winter' or a change in their energy consumption choices," the suit said, asserting that Oncor “sought to bamboozle the public with smoke and mirrors.”
Oncor aimed its installation of smart meters, numbering nearly 829,000 to date, at some of its most economically disadvantaged customers, the suit asserted. Customers living in wealthier service areas are not scheduled to get the meters until 2012, it said.
The suit alleged fraud by non-disclosure and negligence. Berent created a website with the intent of finding more prospective litigants.
California move
The Structure Group, of Houston, will perform a $1.4 million independent evaluation of PG&E's smart meters, California's PUC told the press yesterday.
Allegedly inflated readings by those meters have led to numerous customer complaints, town meetings and a lawsuit.
Two state senators who noticed high energy bills at about the same time PG&E installed smart meters in the San Joaquin Valley led the move to hire an independent investigator.
Structure won the bid because it "demonstrated excellent skills and experience" in dealing with smart metering technologies, designing inquiries and investigations and acting as a prime contractor, the PUC said in a prepared statement. Structure is set to spend about four months on the investigation.
The PUC on Nov 20 voted to approve the expedited hiring of an investigator. It first put out a solicitation Dec 7. Its first choice earlier this month declined to sign on because of a contractual dispute.
PG&E continues "to wholeheartedly support the CPUC's independent third-party evaluation," the utility said yesterday in a prepared statement.
(From SmartGridToday.com)
Some shocked by high electric bills blame Oncor's 'smart meters'
Oncor Electric Delivery recently installed a new "smart meter" at Tricia Lambert's son's home. His electric bill went down.
Lambert only wishes that were true for her.
Though Oncor assures her that her smart meter is working perfectly, her first bills using the new meter vastly exceeded any bill she received in the last three years.
"My bills average between 1,500 and 2,000 kilowatt-hours, and it goes up a little more in the summer," she said. "That's pretty much where I stayed. The first month with the smart meter was 4,383 kilowatt-hours."
So she called Oncor to complain, one of hundreds of Texans in the company's service area to question the accuracy of the new smart meters.The devices carry data wirelessly to Oncor, instantly inform the utility of outages and allow homeowners to monitor usage on their home computers.
And hundreds of complaints is a modest amount, considering that Oncor has installed more than 760,000 smart meters, on its way to 3.4 million by the end of 2012. But it was enough to get the attention of state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay and chairman of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee.
Checking the meters
This week, Fraser asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to halt the installation of smart meters, suspend the $2.19 monthly fee Oncor charges all its customers for the new meters and hire an independent third party to study their accuracy.
He got one out of three. The PUC said it hopes to hire a company within two weeks to make sure the meters are functioning properly.
That's fine with Oncor, which also will begin doing side-by-side comparisons of old and new meters in the Temple-Killeen area, the source of many of the complaints, and installing free in-home monitors for 100 customers so they can keep an eye on their electric consumption.
As for the high bills that triggered customer complaints, Oncor blames those on December's frigid temperatures, the second-coldest in 20 years. That was compounded by monthly billing cycles extended to as long as 35 days because of the holidays.
"The December bills were no doubt larger than the October or November bill," said Oncor spokeswoman Catherine Cuellar. "But when you look at more historic bills, the increase in usage is consistent with the change in temperature."
Sometimes, though, the weather had nothing to do with it.
John Colbert moved out of his Oak Cliff condominium in the beginning of November, and the first bill after he left was around $90, for 600 kwh. In December, when the heat was left off until Christmas Eve and set at 60 for the last few days of the month, power usage jumped to 2,400 kwh, quadrupling in a cold and empty apartment.
The only difference aside from the outside temperature was the smart meter that had been installed.
"Oncor did an audit and checked the old meter, and they found that when they pulled it out, they had misread it by something like 2,000 kilowatt-hours" – roughly $200, said Colbert's daughter, Michele.
And Colbert's case isn't an isolated one.
Keeping warm
Oncor has removed about 760,000 of the old electro-mechanical meters, taking final readings before installing the smart meters. But about 1 percent of the final readings are wrong.
"Any time you've got humans involved in the process, there's always an opportunity for errors to take place," said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein. "The old meters have six numbers – let's say 1-2-3-4-5-6. If the meter reader accidentally types in 1-3-3-4-5-6, your bill has just shot up from that simple typo."
For most customers with high bills, though, Oncor says the weather is the most likely suspect.
Customers with certain kinds of electric heat could spend $25 a day just to stay warm in very cold weather – like the 10-day stretch in mid-February when the temperature reached freezing or below. And December and even moreso February were exceptionally cold, 5 and almost 8 degrees below normal.
"Even if you haven't touched your thermostat," Cuellar said, "if the temperature is 10 degrees colder, that can mean a 50 percent increase in usage."
Schein said a lot of those complaining about high bills say they use "energy-efficient space heaters" to warm their homes.
"But that's kind of like saying you drive a fuel-efficient SUV," he said. "They just don't exist."
Schein said the vast majority of complaints to Oncor have come from customers with electric strip heating, electric space heaters or high electricity rates.
"I talked with one woman and said, 'Ma'am, you're paying 15 cents per kilowatt-hour.' She said, 'That won't make a difference,' " Schein said. "But she could easily find a rate at 10 cents. Her bill was $300. A lower rate would have meant a hundred bucks in her pocket."
Raising awareness
Lambert doesn't deny that December was cold. But January was about average, yet her smart meter said she used 3,314 kwh of energy, still far above her typical usage.
"Oncor keeps telling us they've checked the meters," Lambert said. "They've checked 1,100 of them in Dallas and there's nothing wrong with them."
Oncor will host 100 open houses this year to explain how the new meters work, help customers understand their bills and teach them to find lower electric rates.
"It's all about helping to educate consumers so they can make smarter energy choices," Oncor spokeswoman Cuellar said.
"For most people, their electric consumption comes as a surprise. You don't know what your bill will be until it's too late to make a change," she said. "The biggest advantage, as far as consumers are concerned, is the smart meters will let you know in real time what you're using and what your bill is at that moment."
Customers can walk out to their meters and watch the numbers tick off. But some, such as Leigh Butler of Irving, can't believe what they see.
Her highest electric bill in the last two years came in July 2008, when she and her five kids – four of them teenagers – lived in a 2,800-square-foot, two-story home. The bill said they used 3,511 kwh of electricity, Butler said, and she doesn't doubt it.
Weather or not?
A year later, with two of the kids off on their own, Butler and her three other children downsized to a single-story, 1,500-square-foot home. After an air conditioning repair last summer, her bills settled in around 2,000 kwh.
Then came her bill for late November and December: 4,035 kwh.
"I expect the bills to go up when it's cold," Butler said, "but the weather doesn't justify that usage."
Her January bill convinced her that something was wrong with the smart meter, which Oncor installed Dec. 9.
"We went on a cruise for 15 days in January," Butler said. "We turned the heat off when we left. We turned the hot water heater to its lowest setting."
But the smart meter measured their usage as 3,529 kwh, she said, even though the family was only home for 16 days.
"I'm a single mom, and I'm on a budget. I shopped around for electricity, and I got a great rate," she said. "I can afford $200 a month. But I can't afford $400.
"So I keep the thermostat at 68, and 65 at night. We have electric blankets, but my kids are always cold. I tell them I just can't afford to keep the house warm."
Butler asked Oncor to check her smart meter, and the customer service representative said the company would try to have someone come by within 30 to 45 days, she said.
She's still waiting.
(From Dallas Morning News)
Lambert only wishes that were true for her.
Though Oncor assures her that her smart meter is working perfectly, her first bills using the new meter vastly exceeded any bill she received in the last three years.
"My bills average between 1,500 and 2,000 kilowatt-hours, and it goes up a little more in the summer," she said. "That's pretty much where I stayed. The first month with the smart meter was 4,383 kilowatt-hours."
So she called Oncor to complain, one of hundreds of Texans in the company's service area to question the accuracy of the new smart meters.The devices carry data wirelessly to Oncor, instantly inform the utility of outages and allow homeowners to monitor usage on their home computers.
And hundreds of complaints is a modest amount, considering that Oncor has installed more than 760,000 smart meters, on its way to 3.4 million by the end of 2012. But it was enough to get the attention of state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay and chairman of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee.
Checking the meters
This week, Fraser asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to halt the installation of smart meters, suspend the $2.19 monthly fee Oncor charges all its customers for the new meters and hire an independent third party to study their accuracy.
He got one out of three. The PUC said it hopes to hire a company within two weeks to make sure the meters are functioning properly.
That's fine with Oncor, which also will begin doing side-by-side comparisons of old and new meters in the Temple-Killeen area, the source of many of the complaints, and installing free in-home monitors for 100 customers so they can keep an eye on their electric consumption.
As for the high bills that triggered customer complaints, Oncor blames those on December's frigid temperatures, the second-coldest in 20 years. That was compounded by monthly billing cycles extended to as long as 35 days because of the holidays.
"The December bills were no doubt larger than the October or November bill," said Oncor spokeswoman Catherine Cuellar. "But when you look at more historic bills, the increase in usage is consistent with the change in temperature."
Sometimes, though, the weather had nothing to do with it.
John Colbert moved out of his Oak Cliff condominium in the beginning of November, and the first bill after he left was around $90, for 600 kwh. In December, when the heat was left off until Christmas Eve and set at 60 for the last few days of the month, power usage jumped to 2,400 kwh, quadrupling in a cold and empty apartment.
The only difference aside from the outside temperature was the smart meter that had been installed.
"Oncor did an audit and checked the old meter, and they found that when they pulled it out, they had misread it by something like 2,000 kilowatt-hours" – roughly $200, said Colbert's daughter, Michele.
And Colbert's case isn't an isolated one.
Keeping warm
Oncor has removed about 760,000 of the old electro-mechanical meters, taking final readings before installing the smart meters. But about 1 percent of the final readings are wrong.
"Any time you've got humans involved in the process, there's always an opportunity for errors to take place," said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein. "The old meters have six numbers – let's say 1-2-3-4-5-6. If the meter reader accidentally types in 1-3-3-4-5-6, your bill has just shot up from that simple typo."
For most customers with high bills, though, Oncor says the weather is the most likely suspect.
Customers with certain kinds of electric heat could spend $25 a day just to stay warm in very cold weather – like the 10-day stretch in mid-February when the temperature reached freezing or below. And December and even moreso February were exceptionally cold, 5 and almost 8 degrees below normal.
"Even if you haven't touched your thermostat," Cuellar said, "if the temperature is 10 degrees colder, that can mean a 50 percent increase in usage."
Schein said a lot of those complaining about high bills say they use "energy-efficient space heaters" to warm their homes.
"But that's kind of like saying you drive a fuel-efficient SUV," he said. "They just don't exist."
Schein said the vast majority of complaints to Oncor have come from customers with electric strip heating, electric space heaters or high electricity rates.
"I talked with one woman and said, 'Ma'am, you're paying 15 cents per kilowatt-hour.' She said, 'That won't make a difference,' " Schein said. "But she could easily find a rate at 10 cents. Her bill was $300. A lower rate would have meant a hundred bucks in her pocket."
Raising awareness
Lambert doesn't deny that December was cold. But January was about average, yet her smart meter said she used 3,314 kwh of energy, still far above her typical usage.
"Oncor keeps telling us they've checked the meters," Lambert said. "They've checked 1,100 of them in Dallas and there's nothing wrong with them."
Oncor will host 100 open houses this year to explain how the new meters work, help customers understand their bills and teach them to find lower electric rates.
"It's all about helping to educate consumers so they can make smarter energy choices," Oncor spokeswoman Cuellar said.
"For most people, their electric consumption comes as a surprise. You don't know what your bill will be until it's too late to make a change," she said. "The biggest advantage, as far as consumers are concerned, is the smart meters will let you know in real time what you're using and what your bill is at that moment."
Customers can walk out to their meters and watch the numbers tick off. But some, such as Leigh Butler of Irving, can't believe what they see.
Her highest electric bill in the last two years came in July 2008, when she and her five kids – four of them teenagers – lived in a 2,800-square-foot, two-story home. The bill said they used 3,511 kwh of electricity, Butler said, and she doesn't doubt it.
Weather or not?
A year later, with two of the kids off on their own, Butler and her three other children downsized to a single-story, 1,500-square-foot home. After an air conditioning repair last summer, her bills settled in around 2,000 kwh.
Then came her bill for late November and December: 4,035 kwh.
"I expect the bills to go up when it's cold," Butler said, "but the weather doesn't justify that usage."
Her January bill convinced her that something was wrong with the smart meter, which Oncor installed Dec. 9.
"We went on a cruise for 15 days in January," Butler said. "We turned the heat off when we left. We turned the hot water heater to its lowest setting."
But the smart meter measured their usage as 3,529 kwh, she said, even though the family was only home for 16 days.
"I'm a single mom, and I'm on a budget. I shopped around for electricity, and I got a great rate," she said. "I can afford $200 a month. But I can't afford $400.
"So I keep the thermostat at 68, and 65 at night. We have electric blankets, but my kids are always cold. I tell them I just can't afford to keep the house warm."
Butler asked Oncor to check her smart meter, and the customer service representative said the company would try to have someone come by within 30 to 45 days, she said.
She's still waiting.
(From Dallas Morning News)
Oncor Sued for Fraud Over Smart Meters
After weeks of mounting anger, a class action lawsuit was filed last Friday accusing Oncor of fraud.
"Skyrocketing electricity bills are crushing innocent Texas consumers as a result of Oncor's installation of 'smart' meters," the suit proclaims.
The plaintiffs, Robert and Jennifer Cordts and their lawyer, Jason Berent of Berent & Wilson LP, make a laundry list of accusations in the lawsuit. The suit alleges that Oncor is purposely rolling out smart meters in low-income areas first and that smart meters are a ploy for utilities to “line their pockets” in a deregulated market.
The Cordts found their bills skyrocketed from $400 to $700 a month to $1,800 after a smart meter was installed. In three months they racked up nearly $5,000 in electricity bills.
“[The suit] is full of misstatements and untruths,” said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein. “It’s clear that it’s a lot of hyperbole designed to get media attention rather than address the facts that are out there.”
(You can read the full lawsuit here. And really, it is quite a read.)
Oncor tested the Cordts' smart meter twice, and had arranged a meeting between the couple and a customer service representative to go over their billing, which the plaintiffs cancelled shortly before filing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit in Texas is the second lawsuit against smart meters; the other suit is pending against Pacific Gas & Electric in California. The legal actions highlight the chasm between implementing the building blocks of a smart grid and consumer awareness.
“While there may be certain potential benefits to ‘smart’ meters,” the lawsuit notes, “Oncor is not advertising that customers with ‘smart’ meters will ultimately be charged different rates depending on when energy is consumed.”
Time-of-use pricing will be a cornerstone of a fully functional smart grid, yet in this lawsuit, it is painted as a cash grab by utilities.
While TOU pricing is not at the heart of this lawsuit, the mention of peak pricing as an evil ploy to cheat honest customers illustrates how much work needs to be done to engage consumers before smart meter rollouts begin. Currently, TOU pricing is voluntary in Texas. Additionally, while Oncor delivers the electricity, it does not produce it, and consumers can choose their electric provider, each of whom set different rates.
The lawsuit is rife with colorful language and moral lessons for Oncor, complete with quotes from past presidents.
“Note to Oncor: in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,’” the lawsuit warns.
Creative writing aside, the lawsuit is a serious blow to Oncor, which doesn’t seem to be able to contain customer anger. Their side-by-side testing of old and new meters has been rejected as a sham and angry consumers are still questioning the software that collects data from the smart meters.
At this time, Oncor does not have any plans to slow or stop the installation of smart meters. “We have not found any evidence that would lead us to believe there is a problem,” said Schein.
A hearing has yet to be scheduled.
(From GreenTechGrid.com)
"Skyrocketing electricity bills are crushing innocent Texas consumers as a result of Oncor's installation of 'smart' meters," the suit proclaims.
The plaintiffs, Robert and Jennifer Cordts and their lawyer, Jason Berent of Berent & Wilson LP, make a laundry list of accusations in the lawsuit. The suit alleges that Oncor is purposely rolling out smart meters in low-income areas first and that smart meters are a ploy for utilities to “line their pockets” in a deregulated market.
The Cordts found their bills skyrocketed from $400 to $700 a month to $1,800 after a smart meter was installed. In three months they racked up nearly $5,000 in electricity bills.
“[The suit] is full of misstatements and untruths,” said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein. “It’s clear that it’s a lot of hyperbole designed to get media attention rather than address the facts that are out there.”
(You can read the full lawsuit here. And really, it is quite a read.)
Oncor tested the Cordts' smart meter twice, and had arranged a meeting between the couple and a customer service representative to go over their billing, which the plaintiffs cancelled shortly before filing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit in Texas is the second lawsuit against smart meters; the other suit is pending against Pacific Gas & Electric in California. The legal actions highlight the chasm between implementing the building blocks of a smart grid and consumer awareness.
“While there may be certain potential benefits to ‘smart’ meters,” the lawsuit notes, “Oncor is not advertising that customers with ‘smart’ meters will ultimately be charged different rates depending on when energy is consumed.”
Time-of-use pricing will be a cornerstone of a fully functional smart grid, yet in this lawsuit, it is painted as a cash grab by utilities.
While TOU pricing is not at the heart of this lawsuit, the mention of peak pricing as an evil ploy to cheat honest customers illustrates how much work needs to be done to engage consumers before smart meter rollouts begin. Currently, TOU pricing is voluntary in Texas. Additionally, while Oncor delivers the electricity, it does not produce it, and consumers can choose their electric provider, each of whom set different rates.
The lawsuit is rife with colorful language and moral lessons for Oncor, complete with quotes from past presidents.
“Note to Oncor: in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,’” the lawsuit warns.
Creative writing aside, the lawsuit is a serious blow to Oncor, which doesn’t seem to be able to contain customer anger. Their side-by-side testing of old and new meters has been rejected as a sham and angry consumers are still questioning the software that collects data from the smart meters.
At this time, Oncor does not have any plans to slow or stop the installation of smart meters. “We have not found any evidence that would lead us to believe there is a problem,” said Schein.
A hearing has yet to be scheduled.
(From GreenTechGrid.com)
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