Smart Meters now compulsory for Solar customers

Some years ago, I installed a solar electric system at my home. I recently received a threatening letter from PG&E. It said that unless I installed a Smart Meter (I had opted lout), I'd be charged at a highly undesirable rate, even though I had previously elected a different one, and PG&E had confirmed it, and had given me to understand that I was already being billed according to it. Now suddenly I am told that my present meter cannot tell which hours I am using energy, so I cannot elect a time of use schedule. Only a new Smart Meter can tell them when I am using it.

This, it seems to me, is extremely unlikely. When I first installed a solar system, years ago, I was given the option of going to a time of use schedule, which was then from 12 noon till 6 p.m. All that time, PG&E was able to tell when I was using electricity and supposedly billed me accordingly, even without a Smart Meter. Supposedly, they have also been billing me according to the complicated schedule they themselves offered. Now they find they can't do this any more.

Then they inject a note of panic. Unless you get a new meter installed right away, you may not be able to get one until after the rates change, and until PG&E gets around to you. In the meantime the rate will be horrendous. So don't think, act now!

I deeply resent these thuggish tactics, but unless there is a serious objection from a number of equally outraged people, I, and all in a similar position, will be forced to install one of these devices. There are serious reports of adverse health effects from these, and suspicions about invasion of privacy, and some people have said that their bills went up inordinately.

Does it make sense to you that a meter that once told the hours of use and is supposedly still doing so, suddenly won't be able to do that any more? Is anyone suspicious that a mutually agreed arrangement made with me and countless other customers, has been cancelled so abruptly? With such a bludgeon and such panic? What might be behind this tactic? Might it be more than incompetence?

I suggest checking with a Solar company like Synergy in Sebastopol.

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Posted in reply to the post by comodin:

Some years ago, I installed a solar electric system at my home. I recently received a threatening letter from PG&E. It said that unless I installed a Smart Meter (I had opted lout), I'd be charged at a highly undesirable rate, ...

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We had solar put in by synergy late last year. We opted for no smart meter years before. Pge put in a new meter which they come out and read which records time of use amounts. So the meter you need exists. They just don't want to give you one. If you didn't get a new meter when you installed solar, it might have been in the time when only smart meters could determine time of use amounts, and if you opted out no new meter was installed.

Btw, pge has clearly demonstrated that they hate and are gunning for intertie systems and community aggregate (like Sonoma clean power), because they threaten to change the grid so much pge will die.

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Posted in reply to the post by comodin:

Some years ago, I installed a solar electric system at my home. I recently received a threatening letter from PG&E. It said that unless I installed a Smart Meter (I had opted lout), I'd be charged at a highly undesirable rate, even though ...

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just looking for an update, does pg&e require solar users to use smartmeters?

PG&E changes their story depending on who you talk to. As far as I am aware, there is no compulsion for solar customers to have a smart meter, except they may ask you pay for an opt out. In Sebastopol many homes still have analog meters and some people have not paid any extra fees.

You could call Mark Torres at PG&E and ask: 415-973-8677

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Posted in reply to the post by diaba:

just looking for an update, does pg&e require solar users to use smartmeters?

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