“Analysis: Smart Meter and Smart Grid Problems” (p. 116 – 117) showed PG&E’s 2010 and 2011 “SmartMeter™ Program Enabled Energy Conservation Program” charts from their annual reports. Here are now the charts for 2012 and 2013.

PG&E’s numbers are confusing and contradictory from year to year. There are obvious errors, such as “0” under total enrolled customers for 2010. Customers enrolled in two programs are double counted in 2012, as PG&E notes.

The net result is that during these four years, there has been very minimal conservation savings by consumers, less than what could have been achieved without the expense and considerable problems of the Smart Meter program.

The web program, greatly hyped by PG&E and other utilities, and their premiere PR tool, appears to be a failure, especially for 2010 and 2013, as far as energy conservation.

Demand reduction is not happening at all.

This data is compared below with PG&E’s own suggestions from their literature.

These energy figures do not take into account the considerable energy use by Smart Meters, infrastructure, and related data storage facilities.

There are probably other “gems” hidden in these reports.

PG&E’s program has cost the public billions of dollars, with more costs accumulating. Keep that in mind as you look at these figures which contrast sharply with everything PG&E and the energy companies have said.

 

Table II
PG&E SmartMeterTM Program Enabled Energy Conservation Programs
Subscription Statistics
December 31, 2010 http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/EFILE/CF/134539.PDF

		Energy Savings (MWh)		Demand Reduction(MW)
Program	Service Accounts	Energy Savings	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Load Impacts(MWs)	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Total Financial Benefits(thousands)
Energy Conservation
Customer WebPresentment	128,000	0	$0	0	$0	$0
Home Area Network	0	0	$0	0	$0	$0
Energy Alerts	30,155	0	$0	0	$0	$0
Total	0	0	$0	0	$0	$0

PG&E 2010 Program Year SmartMeter™ Program Enabled Demand Response and Energy Conservation Annual Report, 4-29-11, p.20

Table II
PG&E SmartMeterTM Program Enabled Energy Conservation Programs
Subscription Statistics
December 31, 2011
http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/EFILE/CF/165732.PDF

		Energy Savings (MWh)		Demand Reduction(MW)
Program	Service Accounts	Energy Savings	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Load Impacts(MWs)	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Total Financial Benefits(thousands)
Energy Conservation
Customer WebPresentment	199,833	1,917	$94	0	$0	$0
Home Area Network	0	0	$0	0	$0	$0
Energy Alerts	73,261	0	$0	0	$0	$0
Total	243,432*	1,917	$94	0	$0	$0

PG&E 2011 Program Year SmartMeter™ Program Enabled Demand Response and Energy Conservation Annual Report, 4-30-12, p. 21        * 29,662 customers were dually enrolled in CWP and EA; there were 243,432 unique service accounts

The financial benefits for 2011 were $94,000 divided by 199,833 enrolled customers. Each customer saved 47 cents for the entire year. The energy savings per customer was .0096 MWh or 9.6 kWh for the entire year.

This is in stark contrast with energy savings promoted by PG&E in a customer booklet.

Utilizing power strips, unplugging electronics and small appliances not in use	Savings: 300 kWh/yr
Utilizing a variety of energy savings measures	Savings: 1,712 kWh/yr   (average single family home)

Source: Pacific Gas & Electric, “Path to your Energy Savings”, 11-04-09

9.6 kWh Smart Meter conservation benefits per year
versus
300 kWh simple conservation per year –
that’s a big difference.

Below are PG&E’s figures for 2012 and 2013. How do they compare?

Table II
PG&E SmartMeterTM Program Enabled Energy Conservation Programs
Subscription Statistics
December 31, 2012                           http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M065/K394/65394392.PDF

		Energy Savings (MWh)		Demand Reduction(MW)
Program	Service Accounts	Energy Savings	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Load Impacts(MWs)	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Total Financial Benefits(thousands)
Energy Conservation
Customer WebPresentment	151,1504	23,014	$1,132	0	$0	$1,132
Home Area Network	431	0	$0	0	$0	$0
Energy Alerts	92,458	20,294	$1,041	0	$0	$1,041
Total	244,039	43,308[45]	$2,173	0	$0	$2,173

PG&E 2010 Program Year SmartMeter™ Program Enabled Demand Response and Energy Conservation Annual Report, 4-29-11, p.20

[45’ Because we did not account for dual enrollment for CWP and EA, the two energy savings numbers corresponding to these programs when added together will be likely to double count the impacts from these programs.

Table II
PG&E SmartMeterTM Program Enabled Energy Conservation Programs
Subscription Statistics
December 31, 2013            http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M090/K548/90548323.PDF

		Energy Savings (MWh)		Demand Reduction(MW)
Program	Service Accounts	Energy Savings	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Load Impacts(MWs)	Financial Benefits(thousands)	Total Financial Benefits(thousands)
Energy Conservation
Singly enrolled Customer WebPresentment	503,019	0	0	0	$0	$0
Singly enrolled Energy Alerts	26,415	7,064	$362	0	0	$362
Dually enrolled CWP & Energy Alerts	36,509	10,732	$550	0	0	$550
Home & Business Area Network	354	99	$5.7	0	$0	$5.7
Total	566,297	17,895	$917.7	0	$0	$917.7

PG&E 2013 Program Year Smartmeter™ Program Enabled Demand Response and Energy Conservation Annual Report, 4-30-14 p. 21

The financial benefits for 2013 were $917,700 divided by 566,297 enrolled customers. Each customer saved $1.62 for the entire year. The energy savings per customer was .0316 MWh or 31.6 kWh for the entire year.

Even if you exclude the non-saving CWP-enrolled customers, you still get only $14.50 for the entire year, with an energy savings of .283 MWh or 283 kWh

2013 Summary                                                        Per Acct. Per Year

Singly enrolled CWP                      -0-                      -0-                         -0-

Singly enrolled EA                   .267 MWh           267 kWh              $13.70

Dually enrolled EA, CWP        .294 MWh           294 kWh              $15.06

HAN/BAN                                  .279 MWh           279 kWh              $16.10

Total
For 566,297 customers:

CWP, EA, dual, HAN/BAN      .031 MWh           31 kWh                $1.62

Adjusted Total
For 63278 customers:

EA, dual, HAN/BAN                 .282 MWh           282 kWh              $14.50

 

This is less than the savings PG&E says can be obtained by very inexpensive means.

Utilizing power strips, unplugging electronics and small appliances not in use	Savings: 300 kWh/yr
Utilizing a variety of energy savings measures	Savings: 1,712 kWh/yr(average single family home)

Source: Pacific Gas & Electric, “Path to your Energy Savings”, 11-04-09

Neither of the suggestions above cost the public billions of dollars initially and ongoing millions into the future.

Neither of their suggestions violates privacy or endangers the public.

Neither of their suggestions uses electricity.