Utilities tell committee most customers accept AMI; opt-outs are rare but raise manual‑read and cost questions

Several utilities and municipal utility representatives testified on Feb. 4 about advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), opt-out policies and cybersecurity.

Andrea Cohen (identified in the hearing) and other utility representatives described established AMI systems (power-line carrier and emerging RF mesh systems), the benefits (remote reads, outage detection, two‑way information) and the operational challenges when a customer opts out. One cooperative said it has nearly 41,000 meters and only 62 opt-outs (less than 0.1%); another utility reported 32 opt-outs in a smaller service territory; the town of Stowe reported 18 opt-outs among roughly 4,700 meters.

Why it matters: As utilities move from older power-line carrier systems to radio-frequency (RF) mesh or cellular backhaul systems, some utilities expect opt-out requests to rise because RF signals are more visible to the public. Utilities said opt-outs increase operating costs because they require manual reads or visits, and recommended allowing cost recovery through regulatory approval so the extra expense is not socialized across all customers.

Key operational and regulatory points Utilities described current opt-out approaches: some ask customers to self-report monthly reads and supplement with at least annual manual verifications; others perform manual reads or use estimated bills followed by true-ups. Utilities noted the next-generation RF systems generally cannot be selectively turned on and off for a single meter in the mesh network, which complicates opt-out handling.

On costs and oversight, the utilities said the Public Utility Commission would review and must approve any fees or cost recovery mechanisms for opt-out handling; the vendors and cybersecurity practices used for AMI implementations are subject to federal and state review, and grant-funded projects often include cybersecurity requirements.

Cybersecurity Utility witnesses described work with national vendors and hardened offsite server farms and said cybersecurity and data-privacy measures are central to vendor selection and system design. They noted multiple layers of oversight including federal grant conditions, vendor security audits and state regulatory review of vendor choices for grant-funded implementations.

Next steps Committee members asked utilities to provide details on costs for manual reads, estimates of potential opt-out growth under RF deployments and how vendors comply with cybersecurity standards. No policy changes were adopted at the session.