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PG&E proposes gas and electric AMI upgrades and more backup power transfer meters for vulnerable customers
Summary
PG&E’s customer and enterprise solutions exhibit requests capital to finish replacement of legacy gas modules and to deploy next‑generation electric meters and distributed intelligence in high wildfire‑risk areas; the company also seeks to expand backup power transfer meters and battery programs for customers affected by PSPS events.
PG&E’s Exhibit 6 requested capital to continue meter modernization and customer battery programs. Bill Chen, PG&E case manager for customer and enterprise solutions, said the filing seeks funding to replace roughly 1,300,000 remaining legacy battery‑operated gas modules with next‑generation ultrasonic gas meters (USMs) across the 2027–2030 period and to deploy about 300,000 next‑generation electric ‘‘2.0’’ meters, with approximately 150,000 targeted to high‑wildfire‑risk areas.
Chen described customer benefits from next‑generation gas meters — including greater accuracy and built‑in pressure and temperature sensing that can support automatic shutoff features — and said the electric meter program would enable “distributed intelligence” applications that can help detect primary and secondary issues in high‑risk areas. He noted PG&E filed a separate application in March 2024 seeking recovery of earlier AMI replacement costs (application cited in the workshop materials).
The company also proposed expanding the customer battery program, converting some smaller rebate programs to a direct‑install, utility‑owned customer battery infrastructure (CBI) model and increasing the number of customers served during PSPS events. Bill Chen said PG&E expects the proposed expansion to allow the company to serve an additional 50,000 customers affected by PSPS or similar outages through 2030.
PG&E requested funding to provide about 57,000 backup power transfer meters (BPTMs) by 2030 for select vulnerable customers and those in enhanced circuits. These proposals were presented as part of the GRC filing and will be reviewed by the CPUC.
