DIRECT ACCESS WORKING GROUP
      METERING & COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE C
          PROPOSED POSITION STATEMENTS

Note:  These draft position statements are preliminary and for discussion
purposes.

ISSUE  -  Who owns the meter?

POSITION  -  Any individual or entity may own the metering equipment.  The
customer is responsible for the cost of the metering, and may own the metering.
The customer could arrange to have a third party, such as a retailer, own the
metering and lease it to the customer.  The UDC could be one of the third
parties that owns the metering.

Metering is used in a broad sense for purposes of this discussion, and includes
the meter and any infrastructure that may be required to implement direct
access or real time pricing.

All metering equipment will be required to comply with metering and
communication standards, which are to be developed.

Ownership of the metering does not imply unlimited control over the metering.
See the discussion titled Who Controls The Meter for additional details.

PROS-  The entity that pays for and stands to benefit from the metering owns
the metering.

Ownership is clearly established in most cases.

CONS  -  Some customers may not be able to afford the metering costs on an
individual basis, and may be precluded from participating in direct access or
real time pricing unless they can make alternative arrangements, such as
aggregation.

Certain metering infrastructure costs, such as communications systems,  cannot
be clearly assigned to individual  customers.  As a consequence, ownership
cannot be clearly established.

Ownership may improperly be interpreted to mean ability to install, remove, or
tamper with meter.



Drafted by George Samaniego/SDG&E

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George M. Samaniego - Distribution Management & Strategies
Principal Engineer, X8266, PINS SAMANIEG, Mail CP5203A

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