Off-peak electricity plans face criticism
West Penn Power and Duquesne Light Co. will soon give discounts or rebates to some residential customers who cut their power use at times of day when demand is high.
The two Western Pennsylvania utilities will start programs on June 1 to get customers used to running washers, driers and other electricity-guzzling appliances at off-peak times — basically morning, evening and nighttime — to save money.
Their efforts are part of Pennsylvania's push toward energy conservation through the use of wireless, digital "smart meters" that transmit household power usage and allow utilities to charge higher rates during peak demand times.
But a debate over the technology has been intensifying nationwide, with consumers and lawmakers raising concerns about government mandates, privacy and cost.
State Rep. Mike Reese, R-Mt. Pleasant, is sponsoring legislation that would lift a state mandate for utilities to switch over to smart meters by 2023.
"It's not about the technology," he said Tuesday. "My issue is with the government mandate."
Reese introduced a bill, now in the House Consumer Affairs Committee, after some constituents complained to him about fees on their West Penn Power bills to pay for a smart meter program.
FirstEnergy Corp.'s West Penn Power is equipping customers with smart meters on a voluntary basis and will pay them 50-cent rebates for each kilowatt hour they save during specified periods of up to five hours when the pull on the electric grid is expected to jump.
The utility set a goal to sign up 24,000 customers for its Energy Saver Rewards program. "As of today, we have 23,557," spokesman Joe Cerenzia said yesterday. Greensburg-based West Penn has 720,000 customers in 24 counties. It services customers north, east and south of Pittsburgh.
Cerenzia said an average residential customer, using 1,000 kilowatt hours a month, pays about $1.93 to fund the program.
Duquesne Light, meanwhile, will start two pilot energy savings programs in June.
The 1,341 residential customers who signed up for the utility's Smart Sense Time of the Week will try to cut their electricity usage by at least 10 percent over the course of a month to get a 10 percent credit on the generation portions of their bills.
The top price for power during peak periods will be 15.72 cents per kilowatt hour, and the off-peak rate will be 6.13 cents — compared with Duquesne Light's 9.32-cent price for basic residential service. The program runs through September, when customers could earn an extra 10 percent discount for that month.
Duquesne Light's other Smart Sense program will measures usage daily through September for 111 participants, and charge 31.44 cents per kilowatt hour from 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays, and 5.86 cents at other times.
Neither program requires smart meter installations, but devices will be put on the customers' meters to allow the utility to check power use online said Joseph Vallarian, spokesman for the Downtown-based utilty, which has about 585,000 customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties.
"There was a lot of interest in this" during sign-up periods last year, Vallarian said, but smart meters won't be rolled out system-wide in Duquesne Light's territory until 2018.
A 2008 Pennsylvania law requires large electric utilities to cut demand and consumption by at least 3 percent by May 2013, for example, and sets ongoing benchmarks for conserving power. The law required smart meter adoptions statewide within 15 years.
Nationwide, utilities are facing a growing backlash against the $29 billion effort to bring in the wireless meter technology. States including California, Maine and Vermont have responded to customer concerns about higher bills and safety by offering the option to keep their conventional devices for an extra charge.
Reese's bill drew criticism in a committee hearing last week. Rep. Joe Preston, D-East Liberty, asked why people "would want to go back to yesteryear."
Smart meters have advantages, such as allowing utilities to detect outages faster on their networks, said Jennifer Kocher, spokeswoman for the state Public Utility Commission. Consumers are used to paying a blended rate for electricity, but market prices change constantly, based on grid demand.
"There are consumer concerns, Big Brother-type concerns about this," Kocher said. "We will have safeguards in place to protect privacy. People won't be getting coupons for things, because of the way they use electricity."
FirstEnergy's Penn Power utility, meanwhile, pays $60 in cash incentives to customers who have programmable themostats installed in their homes. Penn Power has 161,000 customers in areas north of Pittsburgh.
