Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Residents press National Grid over sharp bill increases after smart-meter rollout; utility points to data ingestion errors and colder winter
Summary
National Grid told the Nantucket Select Board it has deployed about 10,000 smart meters on the island and traced many billing complaints to a data-ingestion backlog in its billing system, while residents reported individual bills jumping hundreds to thousands of percent and demanded one-on-one reviews.
National Grid representatives told the Nantucket Select Board on Wednesday that the utility has installed over 10,000 advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) devices on Nantucket and that many customer billing complaints stem from data-ingestion and billing-system integration problems rather than faulty meters.
"Across the state, we're at nearly 500,000 meters deployed. In Nantucket, we're over 10,000 meters, which represents about 69% of our residential customers," Jesse Harvey, head of AMI delivery for National Grid Massachusetts, told the board and attending residents. Harvey said installations will continue through April and resume in the fall.
Harvey acknowledged that the island saw higher energy consumption this winter — about 9% higher overall — tied to a colder winter and rate changes, and said National Grid’s analysis showed no systematic…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
