Dive Summary:
- A new report from the Illinois Commerce Commission has found that three ComEd smart meters that caught fire during its smart meter pilot over the last three years were caused by human error during installation.
- “For the smart-meter pilot program, ComEd upgraded 40 meter readers to smart-meter installers but gave them substantially less training than a typical meter technician. The three [...] smart-meter fires occurred at installations made by upgraded meter readers with minimal training,” the report reads.
- The report cited the three primary causes of smart meter fires "are (1) aged and deteriorated meter bases and the electrical connections inside the meter bases that ComEd did not repair, replace, or report; (2) customer tampering; and (3) accidents."
- ComEd has promised to revamp the training the utility's smart meter installers receive.
From the article:
ComEd, which on Sept. 3 began installing the digital electric meters throughout its vast northern Illinois service territory, hadn't adequately trained its meter installers during a pilot program involving a little over 128,000 meters in several suburbs, Illinois Commerce Commission staff concluded in an Aug. 28 report. [...]
ICC staff contrasted ComEd's experience with downstate electric utility Ameren Illinois, which has put in 650,000 automated-meter-reading devices in recent years without incident.