Households that opt out of having a smart meter to measure their energy usage will have to keep paying a monthly refusal fee, as the Michigan Supreme Court has declined to hear a case on the matter.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Consumers Energy, DTE Energy and the Michigan Public Service Commission – which advocated for the fee to continue – in 2020. It was appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in April.
The Residential Customer Group – which filed the lawsuit – asked the court reconsider, but was denied again by the court on July 6. No further appeals are available, said Matt Helms, MPSC spokesperson.
There’s been a fight over the surcharge since it started in 2013, although this lawsuit started in 2018. Helms said three of Michigan’s regulated utilities use smart meters as a more efficient and accurate way to gauge energy usage: Consumers, DTE and Upper Peninsula Power Co.
Customers who wish to have an analog meter instead of a smart meter are allowed to opt out. DTE charges a one-time fee of $67.20 and a monthly fee of $9.80. Consumers charged a one-time fee of $69.39 to customers who hadn’t had the smart meter installed yet or $123.91 if the meter was already installed and needed to be switched back out – plus $9.72 every month.
Residential Customer Group has raised privacy and safety concerns with the smart meters, but the Court of Appeals said the arguments had no merit.
“It fails to come forward with anything other than its unsubstantiated and inchoate fears, which are insufficient to necessitate the reconsideration of this issue,” the court wrote in an April 2020 opinion.
The MPSC supports the surcharge because of the added costs that come with analog meters, Helms said.
“The surcharges cover a utility’s costs for maintaining and continuing to support analog meters,” Helms said in an email. “The monthly surcharges cover the costs for manual meter reading that otherwise would be done by smart meters.”
As of Dec. 31, 2020, Consumers had 9,329 customers opting out of using a smart meter, DTE had 7,075 customers opting out and UPPCO had 328 customers opting out, Helms said.
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