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.