The California Public Utilities Commission has approved $49 million in pre-deployment funding for Pacific Gas and Electric Company's advanced metering initiative -- a technology that allows meters to be read remotely and can provide a wide-range of benefits to customers, the utility and the state.
"PG&E is pleased with this interim decision because it will allow us to continue certain pre-deployment work while awaiting a decision by the CPUC on the merits of the full AMI Project proposal," said Tom Bottorff, senior vice president of customer services at PG&E.
The utility applied for pre-deployment funding earlier this year. In June, the company also filed for regulatory approval to install 9.3 million advanced meters for all its gas and electric customers. If a CPUC decision on the full deployment of advanced meters comes next spring, the company could begin installing advanced meters over a five-year period starting in mid-2006.
Advanced meters are in use by more than a dozen gas and electric utilities across the nation, with several other utilities now implementing advanced meters.