Calling for more focus and money centered on natural gas pipeline safety, consumer organizations urged California regulators Wednesday to abandon their previous approval of a $1 billion switch to an advanced metering system at Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas).

Every other major private-sector utility in the state, including Sempra’s San Diego Gas and Electric Co., is in the final stages of converting its metering to smart technologies that allow two-way communication between the customer site and the utility as part of a statewide effort that began more than five years ago.

“Drastically higher” monthly retail natural gas bills are predicted for utility customers in the state if smart gas meters are installed, according to The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the California Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) independent Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), which urged the CPUC to modify its previous SoCalGas order.

In 2010 the CPUC approved SoCalGas’ billion-dollar multi-year proposal for installing more than five million advanced meter systems in its service territory. It was the last of the major private-sector utilities in the state to gain CPUC approval in what is a statewide effort costing $5 billion and involving more than 20 million electric and natural gas meters (see Daily GPI, April 9, 2010).

The CPUC was split 3-2 in the vote approving the SoCalGas meter program, and TURN and DRA opposed the $1 billion price tag. “Since the CPUC gave the go-ahead on the meters, SoCalGas has proposed an additional $2.5 billion in pipeline safety improvements as well as a $1.6 billion rate hike,” a TURN spokesperson said.

TURN also cited a U.S. Department of Energy warning about potentially higher natural gas prices this winter, but most forecasts elsewhere have called for continued stable and historically low wholesale prices for gas.

“Changed circumstances have highlighted the need to put nonurgent expenditures on hold,” the TURN spokesperson said. TURN Executive Director Mark Toney said the CPUC can halt the gas smart meter program now “with no harm to vendors, consumers or the gas company.” On the other hand, with the consumer groups’ joint petition, he warned that if the regulators fail to act, “countless customers will be harmed by higher gas bills, and some will be forced to make difficult choices between heating and eating. Why rush into more smart meters now?”

In the wake of the September 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline rupture and explosion and investigations critical of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and the CPUC, DRA Acting Director Joe Como said “safety, not smart meters, is the priority for consumers. Circumstances have changed since the CPUC approved these unnecessary smart meters.”

The consumer groups reiterated that the two CPUC members voting against the SoCalGas program last year said the cost-benefit analysis for the gas smart meters just didn’t pencil out and the amounts of energy savings projected to be derived were badly overstated.

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