Finally, after over 30 years of trying to have a system to more quickly pinpoint electrical outages and reduce outage times, the Snohomish Public Utility District is now planning “smart meters” for all customers. After more than 15 years of trying to have these “smart” meters installed to provide customers additional services like real-time energy usage, flexible billing options (something that already exists), and no more estimated bills, the PUD is finally ready to take action.
It has been a long time. The PUD has used all kinds of financial incentives to undertake this meter project. Grants have been provided by the federal government for studies and design work. Funds have been identified in the yearly budgets for this project for several decades. Some software systems (i.e., accounting programs and outage management software programs) have been purchased and installed in support of data from smart meters, programs which have had to be replaced or updated because of incompatibility.
Additionally, the PUD has had to hire many extra meter readers to collect meter data. The software programs could not support the billing system to generate monthly bills as promised by the PUD when it sought customer approval for budget increases.
Rate increases have been needed to pay for the many extra updates to software programs and to replace some hardware.
In the meantime as the PUD has acknowledged, many utility companies have already installed these “advanced” meters. In the surrounding service areas these advanced meters are already part of operational systems. These companies include Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light, and Tacoma Power. PSE has already even installed some of these advance meters in Snohomish County to serve its customers.
I applaud the PUD for its intent to install these advanced meters by 2023, even though the PUD is many years behind other local utility companies. The PUD will have to work really hard (probably with lots of more over-time pay) to meet this date. The total cost has not been identified clearly. It would have be a large part of the budget for 2023. I await my new meter with some doubts.
Ignacio Castro Jr.
Edmonds
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