As the saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Interval meter data from smart meters is intended to lead to smart consumers who will of course curtail their consumption at peak, it is hoped, once they see the data and know what the utilities know, that is, why peak consumption is such a bad thing. Long live flat consumption curves!

But first, we've got to get over the hurdles of installing the smart meters - and overcome the distrust that consumers have of their utilities. For make no mistake, distrust in institutions is at the heart of current protests of smart meter rollouts. It is up to institutions - the utilities, their regulators, and governmental bodies - to restore confidence by providing better marketing and consumer awareness programs in advance of meter rollouts and the inevitable time-of-use rate cases that will follow after the interval meter data starts to fill databases.

Intelligent Utility has provided good coverage of both the California and Texas smart meter snafus (I like Intelligent Utility), and the commentary here highlights the connection between consumer knowledge and progress.

What's interesting about all of this is not so much the testing and review plan, but who was complaining about high bills. Of the customers who called to request meter tests, about 75 percent of them had traditional meters. Apparently, December was the second-coldest one in 20 years and February was exceptionally cold, too. Certainly, some mistakes were found in final readings made before installing the smart meter, but it was also just pretty darn cold in the area. And, as this situation reminds us, weather can significantly impact your electric bill. Working with its customers, Oncor is finding that common reasons for the recent high bills include very cold weather combined with inefficient heaters, electric resistance heat and insufficient weather stripping and insulation.

The hysteria and significant media attention surrounding smart meters has, in a strange way, provided an opportunity for people to remember (or learn) that extreme cold and heat mean that electricity bills will likely go up. And, in the future, the currently criticized smart technologies will ultimately enable electricity customers to better understand the impact of things such as weather in real time, and then be able to take action to avoid the sticker shock they are complaining about now. That is, if they actually have a smart meter.

First California, now Texas. Is it ever thus?

Smart Meters, the vanguard leading the charge into the Smart Grid era, stubbed their collective toe in Fresno and Bakersfield last fall, when a class action lawsuit challenged PGE about higher bills many consumers blamed on the new technology. The announcement of an independent investigator is rumored to be days away.

Now, in Texas, ONCOR is suffering a similar fate, with angry consumers upset about higher bills. Technology is a convenient scapegoat, but in Texas, it looks like record cold weather may be the more likely culprit. Still, the process was fairly predictable. Navigant has been awarded a contract to conduct the independent investigation here in Texas, which benefited from watching the California saga unfold and reacted with amazing swiftness.

Somehow, SCE and SDGE, the other two large investor-owned utilities, managed in California where PGE failed - or at least they avoided a lawsuit. I think the pending investigation will show that those two utilities took more care to educate consumers and bring them along as the transition to smart meters took place.

The consumer will pay for these changes - we avoid bringing them along at our own peril. It reminds me of the old Aamco commercial - "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." How many more independent investigations will we need before we catch on that we must slow down and educate the consumer before sticking them with a bill?

IntelligentUtility commentary is succinct in today's e-newsletter:

This situation has evolved, however, for one very good reason. So far, smart meters are the most prominent, consumer-facing technology to be deployed. Not necessarily employed, but definitely deployed. And the issues surrounding those deployments will have a direct effect on the politics of the smart grid and its acceptance. In a sense - and I don't think this is exaggerating - as go smart meters, so goes the fundamental notion of wise energy use, consumer-utility interactivity and national energy independence.

It is into this environment that the smart grid meets reality and reality is biting back. When I read stuff like the foregoing in The Dallas Morning News, I see an entire nation's goals foundering on mistrust, not to mention the failure of a nascent industry with laudible goals.

Something's gotta give, and fast.

What a concept: "living within one's means"...that's the definition of sustainability that I prefer.

RenewableEnergyWorld.com

Shifting from the Economics of Obesity to Sustainable Energy
The Potential for Clean Energy, Low-Carbon Gains through a 'Sustainable Energy Utility.'

A growing number of communities are developing comprehensive energy approaches that promise fundamental lifestyle changes similar to what we witnessed with information. These experiments include a “net zero energy” buildingscape (Austin, Texas), carless transport during certain hours (London), low/no-carbon communication (Google’s green data network) and industrial ecology-based manufacturing (Kalundbord, Denmark). All of these initiatives represent efforts to boldly craft 21st-century answers to the new era’s economic and social needs that go beyond the carbon accounting model hotly debated for 15 years. Indeed, these options seek to remove the problem rather than waste time counting molecules.

Unleashing the social and market forces that are needed to achieve a real transition to sustainability will require new institutions. The Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) is just such an institution and was recently mandated by law in Delaware. Also by law, the state of Delaware is now required to reduce in-state energy use from all fuels by 30% before 2017 and source 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The SEU does not spend time penalizing failure to switch to clean energy; instead, it marshals capital and policy to reward and support those communities and businesses willing to build an entirely new future.

Just What Is a Sustainable Energy Utility, and Why Do We Need It?

Designed as an independent, non-profit, and financially self-sufficient entity, the SEU delivers energy efficiency, conservation and distributed renewable energy to everyone. Its distinction lies in its potential to help overcome the formidable disincentives to investing in sustainable energy, such as the misalignment between the utility provider’s and customer’s returns on investment and the government rules that create risks for the future value of investments. The SEU seeks to capitalize on the fact that with sustainable energy the individual benefits may be small in isolation, but they are massive in aggregate.