This is driving me crazy. Dominion Energy here in South Carolina installed AMI meters throughout our service territory, supposedly to eliminate estimated bills. But I'm seeing more estimated readings now than we ever had with the old mechanical meters! When the AMI system has communication failures, they just estimate based on 'historical usage patterns' instead of sending someone to read the actual meter. At least with mechanical meters, you knew when you were getting an estimate because they'd mark the bill. Now these AMI estimates look like real readings in the billing system. Anyone else seeing this problem?
Smart meter 'estimated' readings - worse than mechanical meter estimates?
George, yes! Idaho Power is doing the exact same thing with their Sensus smart meters. The communication network has dead zones where the AMI signals can't get through, so they estimate for weeks at a time. Had one commercial client get 3 months of 'actual' AMI readings that were really estimates based on previous year usage. The kicker is the estimates were 25% higher than actual consumption. When we finally got them to do a manual read, my client owed a $2,800 credit. The AMI system doesn't flag estimates like the old billing software did.
This is exactly why I always request the AMI communication logs when auditing smart meter accounts. Entergy Arkansas has the same issue - their AMI network coverage is spotty in rural areas, so they fall back to estimates more often than they admit. The problem is these 'smart' estimates use algorithms that don't account for seasonal business variations or equipment changes. At least when meter readers couldn't access a mechanical meter, they'd note it on the work order. Now everything looks like a successful AMI read even when it's really just calculated guesswork.