Rochester Gas and Electric is beginning a program to replace all customer electric meters. Coincidentally, RG&E was just fined by the State Department of Public Service for making too many errors on customer bills, or as the state put it: “missing its bill service quality metric.” RG&E was fined $900,000.
The company has faced a number of complaints about billing inaccuracies since the COVID pandemic. During that time, the company relied on estimated billing and far fewer meter readings, causing inaccuracies.
Now the company will spend the next three years on a project to install smart meters in every customer home and business. These meters will self-report electricity usage to the company, and will automatically alert RG&E if the power goes out in a particular district. The replacement job will cost an estimated $480 million. There will be no charge to the customer, but you’ll have to pay more if you DON’T want the smart meter, to cover the cost of sending out a meter reader to your home.