Smart Grid, Bad Effects, Part Three
In the January 2011 edition of Public Utilities Reports, Steven Anderson looked at the backlash against the smart grid.
In "Saving The Smart Grid", Mr. Anderson makes the following observations:
"[T]he past year has seenremarkable pushback against smart grid initiatives on several fronts. An Illinois state court ruled in October that Commonwealth Ediston was wrong to pass on smart grid costs to customers. Maryland's PUC denied Baltimore Gas & Electric's smart grid investment plant in June, prompting the utility to come back with a less ambitious approach."
In California, Pacific Gas & Electric had to bow to public pressure and create a "delay list" that allows customers to opt-out of smart meters for the time being; and on May 5th, the California PUC adopted a rate case decision that grants the utility a 6.3% return on the replaced meters - and amortizes that recovery over 18 years.
In "Saving The Smart Grid", Mr. Anderson writes that the "critical questions in the [smart grid] discussion shouldn't be about whether to build the smart grid - that seems inevitable as companies upgrade their systems over the course of time - but how much it will cost and how it will be funded. If the dialogue gets sidetracked by red-herring concerns [Ed. E.g., radio frequencies from the meters hurting humans], however, 'smart grid' could turn into a dirty word - with enormous consequences for utilities as well as their customers."
According to the article, David Rouls, how leads Accenture's smart grid group says that "If utilities don't move forward with smart grid, prices will go up. If they do move forward with smart grid, prices will go up. It's go to be very interesting to see what brush gets used to paint this picture."
Mr. Anderson explains that "the longer they myth of cost reduction hangs on, the more mistrustful and downright angry customers will be when the bubble finally bursts. Selling customers a bill of goods probably isn't the best way to begin a mulit-trillion dollar investment cycle."
It all sounds like what we predicted back in 2009. http://arizonainsight.com/2009/04/23/smart-grids—boon-or-bane-for-consumers.aspx
In "Saving The Smart Grid", Mr. Anderson makes the following observations:
"[T]he past year has seenremarkable pushback against smart grid initiatives on several fronts. An Illinois state court ruled in October that Commonwealth Ediston was wrong to pass on smart grid costs to customers. Maryland's PUC denied Baltimore Gas & Electric's smart grid investment plant in June, prompting the utility to come back with a less ambitious approach."
In California, Pacific Gas & Electric had to bow to public pressure and create a "delay list" that allows customers to opt-out of smart meters for the time being; and on May 5th, the California PUC adopted a rate case decision that grants the utility a 6.3% return on the replaced meters - and amortizes that recovery over 18 years.
In "Saving The Smart Grid", Mr. Anderson writes that the "critical questions in the [smart grid] discussion shouldn't be about whether to build the smart grid - that seems inevitable as companies upgrade their systems over the course of time - but how much it will cost and how it will be funded. If the dialogue gets sidetracked by red-herring concerns [Ed. E.g., radio frequencies from the meters hurting humans], however, 'smart grid' could turn into a dirty word - with enormous consequences for utilities as well as their customers."
According to the article, David Rouls, how leads Accenture's smart grid group says that "If utilities don't move forward with smart grid, prices will go up. If they do move forward with smart grid, prices will go up. It's go to be very interesting to see what brush gets used to paint this picture."
Mr. Anderson explains that "the longer they myth of cost reduction hangs on, the more mistrustful and downright angry customers will be when the bubble finally bursts. Selling customers a bill of goods probably isn't the best way to begin a mulit-trillion dollar investment cycle."
It all sounds like what we predicted back in 2009. http://arizonainsight.com/2009/04/23/smart-grids—boon-or-bane-for-consumers.aspx
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