PG&E acknowledges thousands of inaccurate utility bills

After earlier insisting that only "a few" customers with its new SmartMeters received inaccurate utility bills, Pacific Gas & Electric acknowledged Monday that the number may be as high as 23,000.

PG&E couldn't say how many of those customers were overcharged, how many were undercharged or the total sum of the inaccuracies. But the utility conceded it has done a poor job responding to consumer complaints about SmartMeters and announced a major overhaul of its customer service efforts.

"While we have confidence in this technology, some of our customers question whether they can have faith in our SmartMeter program, and frankly in PG&E," said Helen Burt, PG&E's senior vice president and chief customer officer. "Restoring this trust is absolutely critical to us."

But state Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on the Smart Grid, characterized the utility's latest disclosures as "more as slow crawl toward the truth than anything else."

PG&E has installed 5.5 million SmartMeters throughout Northern California and continues to install about 10,000 a day. But hundreds of customers who already have the digital meters at their homes have complained of skyrocketing gas and electric bills, leading to widespread suspicions that the meters either malfunction or are used to intentionally overcharge.

After months of insisting that there were no problems with the meters and

By Dana Hull

dhull@mercurynews.com

Posted: 05/10/2010 11:44:50 PM PDT
Updated: 05/10/2010 11:44:52 PM PDT