Smart meters inspire sparks at meeting

MLGW deceives over opt-out rules, Fullilove, opponents say

At a contentious City Council committee meeting Tuesday, the chairwoman pounded the table and accused Memphis Light, Gas and Water officials of lying.

The subject: smart meters, new electronic devices that eventually would make meter-read- ing jobs obsolete and could change how customers are charged for utilities.

MLGW has made plans to purchase 60,000 smart meters and install them throughout the area.

The I nternational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers labor union and other opponents said at the public meeting that

More from City Council. 2B the utility is deliberately making it hard for people to avoid having the meters installed in their homes. Bill Hawkins of the IBEW said the utility is lying to people to make them believe they’ll have to pay a fee if they reject an electronic meter.

MLGW CEO Jerry Collins said the utility has created straightforward procedures to opt out of the program. He said the utility contacts people who are going to get a smart meter about a month in advance. Those who want to opt out call the utility. “We send them a form, they fill it out and sign it and send it back.”

Councilwoman Janis Fullilove chaired the committee meeting and openly sided with opponents of smart meters, saying she’d received many complaints about them.

As she grilled MLGW officials, both sides lost their tempers. Collins interrupted her, and after MLGW official Christopher Bieber testily corrected Fullilove’s pronunciation of his last name, she exaggerated it for the rest of the meeting, calling him “BEE-BERRR.”

When Collins said MLGW couldn’t let people opt out by telephone because the utility can’t

verify the identities of callers, she began to shout and pound the table. “That’s a bunch of bull, Mr. President!” she said. “I’m sorry, it’s a bunch of bull! And I don’t know why you’re sitting up here trying to deceive and bamboozle the people!”

Collins said the IBEW opposes smart meters because they will reduce the number of union jobs and union dues. Implementation of the program over seven years would lead the utility to eliminate 170 meter-reading and related jobs through attrition.

“My job is to watch out for the best interest of our ratepayers and to be fair to our employees,” Col- lins said in a statement after the meeting. “It’s not my job to watch out for IBEW’s union dues.”

Hawkins of the IBEW says the union opposes smart meters because they will harm ratepayers. “They can expect higher costs from MLGW and higher bills.”

The implementation of smart meters usually goes hand-in-hand with “timeof-use-metering,” which charges people different rates at different times. For example, the utility might one day charge people higher rates for using electricity at a peak time — such as a hot summer day when many customers are using air conditioners. The Tennessee Valley Authority is trying to avoid building power plants that would only run at peak times.

MLGW spokesman Richard Thompson said that smart meters and time-of-use metering are both optional.

“Customers can opt out of smart meters,” he said. “Smart meter customers can choose to have (time of use) rates or not.”

Smart meters are a way to change people’s energyuse behavior — but that bothers opponents like Yvonne Burton, a 44-yearold from Collierville who came to the meeting.

“I don’t want higher bills. I don’t want MLGW to change my behavior,” she said. “If you want to do it, fine. Knock yourself out.”

The committee is scheduled to consider the matter again in two weeks.