Consumer group criticizes smart meter study

[Gold Metal Flake]

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/business/economy/x965388842/Consumer-group-criticizes-smart-meter-study


A utilities consumer advocacy agency says it is being stonewalled on smart meters by the very group hired to investigate the devices.

The state Public Utilities Commission's Division of Ratepayer Advocates had numerous questions about The Structure Group's determination last summer that Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s meters were performing accurately.

But when the division's senior engineer asked the Houston-based consulting group for answers in April, a principal of the firm wrote in an email that the project was "officially closed" and that the division would have to "dig through" a 40 gigabyte computer hard drive to get answers.

In a letter Friday to commissioners, the division's interim director, Joseph P. Como, said his agency has no choice but to halt its inquiry, despite having paid $25,000 to a consultant it hired to evaluate the report.