State regulators on Friday stepped up their inquiry into the
safety of Peco Energy Co.'s smart-meter installation
program, which the utility suspended last month after some
devices caught fire.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission scheduled an
informational meeting for Thursday at its Harrisburg offices
and has summoned representatives from Peco and its three
meter vendors.
Peco, in a formal written response Friday to questions from
the PUC, updated the number of meters that have overheated
from 15 to 26. Some resulted in fires that damaged the area
where the meter is mounted to the wall, and three caused
fires that spread beyond the meter, said Cathy Engel
Menendez, Peco's spokeswoman.
In the most recent incident, a meter flashed and caused
minor damage to the exterior of a home on Sycamore Ridge
Drive in Levittown, said James McGuire, the Middletown
Township fire marshal.
Peco's suspension of its
smart-meter installation program has complicated the
utility's $650 million plan to upgrade the region's
electrical-distribution system. The utility received a $200
million federal grant to install 600,000 meters by the end
of 2013.
Pennsylvania requires all large electric utilities to
install the meters, which take frequent readings and allow
suppliers to offer for hourly pricing. The meters also
improve utilities' ability to manage outages.
In its filing Friday, Peco blamed seven of the 26
overheating incidents on "pre-existing" conditions with
customer equipment, and seven on "localized" conditions
including water infiltration. Twelve incidents are still
under investigation.
Some of the incidents with water infiltration were
attributed to the way the installers had secured a metal
ring around the meter, Engel Menendez said. One involved a
meter located beneath a leaky gutter. Another occurred after
a homeowner had power-washed the wall around the meter, she
said.
All 26 incidents involved meters manufactured by Sensus
Metering Systems Inc., but the utility is not blaming the
devices.
"We're not seeing the meter as necessarily being the
catalyst," said Engel Menendez. She said the utility has
hired two outside forensic experts to evaluate the meters.
"We want to determine what's going on so we can move ahead,"
she said.
As of Wednesday, Peco has installed 201,642 meters,
including 155,326 manufactured by Sensus, which is based in
Raleigh, N.C., and 46,000 manufactured by Landis & Gyr AG, a
Swiss company. About 30,000 of those were swapped for Sensus
meters.
Peco is also buying meters from Elster Group S.E., a German
company for industrial and commercial customers.
Peco is installing new software so the meters shut down
automatically if they overheat.
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