The Kentucky Public Service Commission has denied a request by Kentucky Utilities Company and Louisville Gas & Electric Company seeking authority to move forward with the full deployment of Advanced Metering Systems (AMS) in their respective service territories. The commission ruled that the companies had failed to show that there is a need for AMS at this time and that a territory-wide AMS deployment will not create wasteful duplication of facilities. More specifically, the commission found that the companies had failed to present sufficient evidence to demonstrate that there is a substantial inadequacy of existing service.  It said that the company had admitted that current meters were functioning adequately and that the existing electric meters have remaining service lives of 17.4 years and 15.4 years for LG&E and KU, respectively. Given the companies’ 15-year depreciation schedule for the purposed AMS meters, the AMS meters would be on a roughly parallel depreciation schedule with the existing meters, the commission concluded. It also pointed out that it has never found that an AMS deployment was justified simply because of the superiority of new technology and added that that the companies had not proposed any programs that fully implement the functionality of advanced meters. The commission also emphasized that the companies had declined to guarantee their proposed level of net benefit to support a finding that the investment program would represent a reasonable, least-cost alternative to keeping the existing meters in place.   Re Louisville Gas & E Co., Case No. 2018-00005, Aug. 30, 2018 (Ky.P.S.C.).