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San Diego Gas & Electric Co. is replacing 33,000 smart meters in San Diego County after 4,100 of the digital, computer-linked devices stopped sending signals and about 35 customers lost power entirely, an SDG&E spokeswoman said.
Texas regulators are paying attention as well, because at least one major utility in that state is using the same type of meter as the one causing the problems in San Diego.
SDG&E spokeswoman April Bolduc said June 2 that the Sempra Energy subsidiary has installed about 550,000 electric smart meters and about 350,000 gas meter smart modules to date as part of an effort to install 1.4 million electric smart meters and 850,000 gas smart modules by end of 2011 for all its customers. The gas smart modules are attached to but do not replace the original gas meters.
Starting May 13, SDG&E identified problems with the first set of smart meters it installed when it launched its systemwide replacement effort in March 2009, Bolduc said. About 30,000 of these meters, which the utility installed in Escondido, Calif., contained an earlier generation of software, which is technically called firmware, she said.
"They were the very first ones we rolled out under the main program," Bolduc said.
During a recent remote wireless upgrade of these meters, about 4,100 of them stopped recording data, Bolduc said, adding that about...