The monthly meeting of the Orlando Utilities Commission was well attended Tuesday, March 12, not by city residents, but by more than thirty OUC project managers, attorneys, administration, and those representing business related to other OUC projects on the agenda.
The March agenda contained two items under the heading of Customer and Sustainable Services relating to OUC’s Meter Data Management System Project. MDMS is concerned with all aspects of a Smart Grid program, including Smart “digital” Metering. Board members passed over these agenda items with no comment.
The board then moved to other “matters of OUC business,” a JP Powers Customer Satisfaction survey and the OUC employee Health and Wellness program. While less than 15 minutes were devoted to the topic of Smart Meters, the board gave thirty minutes to the benefits of participating in the OUC Health and Wellness program with commentary from Mayor Buddy Dyer about employee fitness.
Three Orlando residents spoke for less than nine minutes on their concerns about Smart Meters during Tuesday’s meeting. Questions went unanswered about safety issues and lack of public hearings on the rollout of the program. Board members did respond to an OUC customer’s request to have a meter removed from a home since the meter was installed without the homeowner’s permission. A member of the Hispanic community spoke about taking this issue back to her community to inform Spanish speakers that the meters were being installed and that an opt out program was available. OUC did not comment on whether any of the Connector newsletters or postcards used to notify customers of the Smart Meter installation were made available in Spanish. The board was advised that Hispanic media outlets would now be asked to cover the Smart Meter program to let the Spanish-speaking community know of the option to opt out.
A speaker noted that OUC’s opt out program originally required a doctor’s letter. After WFTV and WDBO news coverage on the opt out program and OUC’s “not yet determined” opt out fees,” OUC swiftly changed their policy last week to open the opt out to anyone requesting it.
Mayor Buddy Dyer, in an attempt to create a reason for the medical opt out, erroneously stated that, the original “reason for requiring a doctor’s letter for opting out was to protect our frail, elderly and the medically needy who may have machines requiring electricity, so that no interruption to service would occur when the meter switchover was taking place.”
Less than fifteen minutes of the more than hour-long meeting was spent on discussion of the meter program. Board President Don Kirby stated, “This is your forum, your chance to have discussion about the digital meters. It is our #1 job to make sure that customers are represented. My own personal call to customer service on another matter ended in my acknowledgement that there are areas that we could improve on in customer service. We don’t want to be reliable just once, or occasionally, but all the time.”
