After calling PG&E and talking to their meter readers several times over the years, I've always been talked out of replacing a “high” reading meter, as everyone assured me that the old analog/mechanical meters would error in favor of the consumer over 95% of the time. I believe that my “high” reading meters were actually the accurate ones.

I'm rarely a conspiracy theorist, but I think the aging meters could be a major part of PG&E's recent financial problems. I believe the recent outburst over higher bills due to SmartMeter roll out is proof of this concept. This is a quasi public agency. If everyone in PG&E's service areas start reporting accurate meter readings, the elevated billing levels should in turn lower rates for everyone. I can't wait to get my SmartMeter to see what happens.

I have closely monitored my new smart meter. In a 2.5 hour period, after I unplugged everything in my house, switched off the main power line to the A/C and only had my new refrigerator plugged in, the smart meter indicated I consumed 15 Kilowatts! That is 5 Kilowatts per hour! Something does not smell right here!

I would like to know if there are any independent resources or contractors I can contact to verify how accurate these smart meters are???? Would appreciate your feed back.

“791 kilowatt-hours in July, up from 236 a year earlier.” 791 is very well within range of what I'd expect to see for a condo / smaller apartment. 236 is VERY low- like someone was on vacation that month last year. I hear high bill complaints every day and the first thing the customer does is blame the meter. So finding a lawyer and 200 customers who are convinced their meter is reading wrong is not a difficult task.

Electric meters very rarely malfunction to over read or under read. They just stop. Funny how customers don't often call to complain when their electric bill hits 0 kWh. :-)

Finally if other utilities are using this info as a reason to back off on AMI. It's because there is an underlying issue, and this PG&E challenge is just being used as cover because it plays well as a scare tactic. There are legitimate security concerns, technology learning curve issues for large scale implementations and just a common sense approach to wait for the best technologies and companies to be shaken out with early adopters like PG&E.

Smart meters are coming, they will help customers manage energy (if they use it to save $ and kWh and they will given the right rate structures) and it will help utilities manage infrastructure and reduce truck rolls for meter reads and troubleshooting. I'm not sure they will roll out as fast as politicians promise they will but when have we ever been able to trust a politician's promises anyway?