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Texas Staff Urge Rejection of "Flawed" Smart Meter Deployment Plan At Sharyland, Oppose "Rush"

November 24, 2015

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Copyright 2010-15 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com

Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas in a post-hearing brief have urged the Commission to reject the as-filed advanced metering deployment plan of Sharyland Utilities, calling the plan, "flawed," and urging against a, "rush."

As previously reported, Staff had sought an abatement in consideration of the Sharyland AMI deployment case pending resolution of the Hunt companies' application to acquire Oncor, which, if approved, would make Oncor an affiliate of Sharyland Utilities. Staff suggested that leveraging Oncor's AMI assets and expertise could reduce costs of Sharyland's AMI deployment. The requested abatement was denied.

While Staff, "supports the deployment and use of advanced meters in Texas," Staff reiterated in its brief that, "Staff believes that the new opportunities offered by having Sharyland and Oncor existing as affiliates should be explored with respect to reducing costs of the AMS deployment, and that it is unreasonable for Sharyland to rush forward without considering this opportunity. Staff is not asking for a dispositive ruling on Sharyland's application. Rather, Staff believes that the Commission will want all available information to ensure that Sharyland considered all options to reduce the costs that would be imposed on customers in its service territory, especially considering the recent complaints that have been raised about Sharyland's rates"

Staff also said that, "it would be beneficial for Sharyland to conduct a pilot project to address any potential issues with the smart meters before full deployment. Sharyland believes that it can do a 'test as they go' during its deployment, because the meters will not be provisioned until all the meters will be deployed. However, the deployment of smart meters is a large and complicated undertaking. Conducting a small pilot and correcting any issues early would be more cost effective and more reasonable in the long run than finding out that there are issues after deploying some or all of the smart meters, which could result in significant increased costs to consumers."

The Alliance for Retail Markets and TXU Energy have urged that pre-activation testing be required to ensure any potential data quality issues are addressed prior to go-live. While Sharyland has agreed to certain pre-activation testing, the REPs said that Sharyland has not agreed to report such results to the REPs voluntarily, which the REPs said should be required

Sharyland said that its program already includes a robust testing program and that further delay in its deployment is unnecessary

"While customers of other TDUs in ERCOT have been enjoying the benefits of advanced metering for several years, Sharyland's customers have not yet had the opportunity to realize these benefits. Sharyland's customers can now enjoy the same benefits as other ERCOT TDU customers by approving Sharyland's Deployment Plan and other elements of its Application in accordance with the Legislature's intent to deploy AMS 'as rapidly as possible,'" Sharyland said

"In an effort to reach an agreement with some of the opposing parties, Sharyland agreed to an abatement of this proceeding earlier this year, and then agreed, in its rebuttal testimony, to delay the Deployment Plan until 2016 and implementation of the surcharge until December 2016. But the time for additional delay is gone, and Sharyland respectfully urges the ALJs to approve the Deployment Plan so that Sharyland's customers can begin receiving the benefits and full functionality of advanced meters as soon as possible," Sharyland said

Docket 44361

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