by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The Consolidated Commission on Utilities is schedule to meet this evening to discuss a possible opt-out policy for its smart meter program. But it may come at a price.

"People have to be responsible for their decisions," said CCU chairman Simon Sanchez. "If you want to use power, you got to pay for it. In this case, if you don't want a smart meter, fine, but there's a cost that is born, that is created when you don't take a smart meter."

And for GPA customers that cost will be a one-time fee of $235 to opt out of the smart meter program along with a recurring $20 monthly fee to pay for the costs of manually reading the regular meters. Sanchez says that's the proposal outlined in GPA's smart meter opt-out policy. "We have asked GPA management to research how other communities have dealt with the opt-out programs that they have, and they've done their research and tonight they're recommending the policy for GPA," he explained.

GPA so far has installed 23,000 meters out of its 40,000 customers. Sanchez says the opt-out rate on Guam has shown less than 2%, consistent with figures nationally.

GPA meanwhile has disagreed with the position a few have taken over concerns regarding health, privacy and emission of radio frequencies. Sanchez ultimately says all that's required of a conventional meter will incur some costs. "Meter readers used to have to go out and read regular meters, you don't have to read smart meters, but if you don't take a smart meter, you're going to take a conventional meter," he explained. "Someone has to go out and read that, there's a cost and that cost shouldn't be charged to other customers who opt-in."

For the past months, GPA has conducted outreach programs and village meetings on the smart meters and should have sent letters and notifications to customers where smart meters will or have been installed. GPA meanwhile has also bypassed those who request to not have a smart meter installed at this time.

Sanchez meanwhile expects to hear how GPA got the recommended fees and if approved, hopes to test the opt-out policy for 12 months to assess actual costs.

If the opt-out policy is approved by the CCU, it still needs final approval from the Public Utilities Commission. Sanchez meanwhile says the installation of all smart meters should be completed by this summer.