In the city that helped launch the historic preservation movement, making changes to old buildings is not a simple matter. So it is that National Grid has run into trouble in its attempt to install outside gas meters to some historic buildings. Both sides make a good case. The company wants exterior access to improve
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National Grid testified last fall (Docket 3943, PUC transcript 8-27-08) that it is perfectly safe to keep gas meters where they have been for decades. However, what is potentially unsafe, NGrid testified, is for regulators that convert high pressure to low pressure gas to remain inside homes when there is a high pressure supply. The win-win and the least costly solution is to keep meters inside and to place the potentially risky regulators outside. The 8 inch diameter regulators are inconspicuous and much less obtrusive compared to the size of meter sets.
The truly egregious part of National Grid’s plan is that ratepayers are paying for these costly and unnecessary meter relocations. Of the $26.6 million the entire project is costing, $12.8 million is due to gas meter relocations. In these tough economic times, it seems imprudent to relocate meters that not only diminish property values and investments, but also cost consumers unnecessary rate hikes.