SoCalGas gets OK for $1-billion smart-meter project

A divided California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved a request from Southern California Gas Co. to charge customers $1.05 billion to install radio-controlled smart meters on 6 million homes from Fresno to the Mexican border -- overriding criticism that the technology simply isn't needed.

On a 3-2 vote, the regulatory panel backed a proposal by Commissioner Dian Grueneich to provide 20.5 million SoCalGas users with more real-time information about how much natural gas they are using to run furnaces, water heaters and stoves. For a $200 smart meter, ratepayers would be charged 70 cents a month for 25 years, the expected lifetime of the equipment. Their savings, however, appears to be minimal: about 1% less gas over the same time. Approval of the smart gas meters, Grueneich said, is in line with previous PUC orders to shift to smart electric and gas meters. She said her proposal, to be phased in starting mid-2012, "provides reasonable assurance that the project will be cost-effective for ratepayers." Opposing commissioners called the estimated savings speculative, agreeing with an agency administrative law judge's decision that concluded that SoCalGas' meter plan was a money loser.