Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) have a monopoly status in the USA that is regulated by state utility commissions. Depending on the state, IOUs are responsible for generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity; and interacting with ratepayers for customer services, outage reports, and billing questions. In a few states, this vertical integration does not exist because of [...]
There are more signs that the brouhaha over PG&E’s smart meter rollout may do damage to other utilities’ plans for similar deployments. News reports indicate that utilities and regulatory agencies in other states are closely watching the legal tangle devolve in California. Consumer advocacy groups in California are concerned that smart meters are expensive, inaccurate [...]