TITLE
Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Subsection 15.40.100.A relating to meter tests, read and adopted as read. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
The Long Beach Gas and Oil Department (LBGO) is responsible for the ongoing accuracy of its 150,000 natural gas meters in service. Current Long Beach Municipal Code Section 15.40.100(A) (Code) requires that whenever a meter is removed from service, the meter must be tested for measurement accuracy, even if there has never been any previous indication of inaccuracy.
The meter testing process is time and labor intensive, costly, and very rarely indicates faulty measurement of any significance. It is believed that customers would receive more value by reassigning staff currently performing meter testing services to providing other higher-priority customer services. Furthermore, given the extremely high volume of meters (well over 25,000 meters) that will be permanently removed from the field during the upcoming deployment of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure project, significant costs would be incurred if each of these meters is required to be tested. It is believed that testing of these old meters would provide very minimal, if any, customer benefits.
As a result, staff recommends amending the Code to adopt utility industry standards with regard to meter testing, which will result in random sampling of meters retired from service, rather than testing of every such meter. Using historical information of meter testing results, LBGO is able to determine which meters are best suited to be tested due to the meter type and specific operational conditions. To accommodate this change, it is recommended that Long Beach Municipal Code Section 15.40.100(A) be amended as recommended.
This matter was reviewed by Deputy City Attorney Richard Anthony and by Budget Management Officer Victoria Bell on June 24, 2015.
TIMING CONSIDERATIONS
Approval of this recommendation is requ...
Click here for full text