SDG&E Seeks Major Meter Deployment

San Diego Gas & Electric detailed a strategy this week to install advanced meters for virtually all of its nearly 1.3 million customers at an estimated cost of more than $600 million. The hardware is estimated to reduce peak demand by 360 MW by 2010. The utility, along with Pacific Gas & Electric, asked the California Public Utilities Commission March 15 to approve the predeployment work needed to roll out advanced metering systems. CPUC president Mike Peevey commended SDG&E for ?this wise step,? adding that he hoped the reluctant Southern California Edison would follow suit. The San Diego utility?which faces a tight supply situation this summer?outlined an initial deployment strategy that would shave 271 MW off its peak load by 2010 at a cost of $49 million. It would install meters for 600,000 customers concentrated in its inland service area, where the summers sizzle. SDG&E wants to wait to install meters in the coastal area, where the weather is balmy enough that peak-use air conditioning is less critical, said Edward Fong, SDG&E director of advanced metering infrastructure. The new meters could save money by reducing labor costs for meter readers because they transmit data via telecommunications. To eliminate meter readers entirely, though, SDG&E will have to install communications devices on its gas meters. A company study shows that the benefits of advanced meters will, however, outweigh their costs only if the CPUC approves critical peak pricing. SDG&E proposes a peak price as high as $3.45/kWh ( Circuit , Jan. 28, 2005). ?Similar to higher-priced peak cellular phone minutes, energy used during certain peak periods would cost more, while energy used outside of those periods would cost less,? said Bill Reed, senior vice-president of regulatory and strategic planning for SDG&E. The utility cites tests of advanced meters, coupled with peak pricing, which shaved peak loads by 14 percent. Without approval of its critical peak pricing plan, Fong said, the benefits of full deployment of advanced meters would be only $392 million, compared to a total cost of $612 million. However, critical peak pricing would bring another $268 million in benefits. It would tip the balance in favor of advanced meters by $48 million, as well as creating an estimated $6 million in environmental benefits. PG&E submitted a far less detailed plan. It called for spending $49 million to install and test 5,000 meters early next year. Edison received an extension until April 1 to file its plan, said a company spokesperson. Previously, the utility told the CPUC it does not recommend advanced metering in its area because of the high costs. Edison stated it is increasing efforts to enlist customers in a conservation program under which it installs a small radio-controlled device on air conditioners that temporarily turns them off during peak times. The company proposes increasing funding for such conservation programs from $170 million to $245 million a year. In a related development, the California Energy Commission recommended that the CPUC change the rules to require net metering only when a utility customer with a distributed-generation system receives public incentives or tariff exemptions. That concept received support from PG&E and others this week in commission filings.

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SDG&E Seeks Major Meter Deployment

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