Are Smart Meters a Smart Move?

[XLFD]

The public comment at the last city Ludington council meeting had a representative from Consumer's Energy speaking on behalf of Smart Meters and telling us of their impending installment in Ludington homes (3:00 in, transcription follows):

January 25, 2016 Ludington City Council from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

Dennis McKee:  "Consumer's Energy is updating it's electric meter technology! And there's nothing more exciting to talk about on a Monday night than electric meter technology.

The reason that we are doing that is because the meter that we have on homes right now don't tell us anything unless we go in cars, go to homes, walk up driveways, look at the meters, punch in numbers, and then send bills to our customers.

The new meter technology which has a yellow label on it, like this, we'll start installing in March in the Ludington area, sends us a text type message each night letting us know how much electricity each customer has used. Which is great for us for providing good and accurate bills because of no more estimated meter readings is, um, one of the results.

Another benefit is on-line access to energy use information; customers can go on-line and follow their energy use through the month and have a better idea of what the bill will be before it arrives, and finally, beginning this fall, the meter will also have the capability of contacting us even when there is a power outage even when the customer is not at home to call us. Otherwise, we don't know when the customer is out of power. So we will have that capability to be notified with the meter this fall. So I wanted to show you what we would be setting up for our customers, your residents, here in late February early March.

We're going to first send out these blue thirty day notices letting folks know that we're going to be there to set up the latest meter technology and they'll be there in thirty days, there's contact information on them where you can get more information on-line or by calling.

Fourteen days in advance we'll send a letter that looks like this letting folks know that we drive a white Ford Focus, our employees carry their employee IDs with them, and we wear brightly colored safety clothes. This is sort of the public safety notice. It goes to every home that we are updating the meters at, and then finally, on the big day, when we get out there to update the electric meter technology, you don't need to be home for it, but you can make an appointment if you want to with the information that is sent.

A big sort of a festival atmosphere everyone is excited to get those new meters, right? We leave these beautiful green commemorative door hangers letting folks know they have a new meter, but if it's a sad day and we aren't able to update your meter, we leave these sad blue back door hangers, which generally means you have a very large dog close to the meter, we'll come back on another day.

So I'll leave these brochures, I'll hand these out to members of the public as well broken down into three sections: how does it work, what's in it for me, when will I get mine, how does it work. Consumer's Energy is the first large utility in the country to use the cellular network, through the cell towers the meters will send us a once per day cell-type message letting us know how much electricity each customer has used per day... we're abut half-way through the state, updating 1.8 million electric meters through out the state. We will be done with the entire state by the end of 2017."

And assuredly you can go to Consumer's Energy tell you why this new electric meter technology (commonly referred to as "smart meters"-- notice that McKee avoids that term throughout his presentation)  and you can find more cheerfully presented information about this at the Consumer's Energy Smart energy page, along with the fact they are nearly through installing these devices throughout the lower peninsula, and a friendly infomercial on the technology

But there is a good reason why Mr. McKee avoids using the term "smart meters", as they have gotten some very bad reviews in the concerns of health, fire safety, environmental issues, costs, and privacy.  Many of these are high on people's lists of priorities, and since they are already fairly content with their 'dumb' (analog) meters which really have no issues they are well advised to do research beyond this article, as there are plenty of news and science already available on the issues that 'smart meters' bring forth.

Perhaps the most comprehensive is the Smart Meter Education Network which keeps track of these issues.  You can decide for yourself whether the science and the news available behind the hidden hazards and costs of the technology is worth opting out. 

Consumer's Energy does not just accept your desire to opt out, they charge you a one time rate of around $70, and then charge about $10 each month (for now) just for that privilege-- not to mention that your electricity rate will go up to install these at all of your neighbors' house and replace them every 5-7 years.  And even though Michigan Appeal judges have declared this unjust, Consumer's Energy plods on (read it and more local issues in this Michigan Blog v DTE and CE Smart Meters.

If you need a second opinion try the Stop Smart Meters network and check out their Stop Smart Meters Brochure.   In my original review of the city council meeting, I intimated that I would be commenting on the Consumer's Energy in a future article, which this is.  But the day after I had posted this, an article by my favorite sage from southeastern Mason County, Aldon Maleckas, was able to get his opinion/facts printed in the editorial page of the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews), which covers quite a lot of the data already linked to. 

Typically, it's hard to speak out against 'progress' like this without sounding like a conspiracy theorist, but the information on this new technology is out there and indicates that caution may be advisable. 

Dennis McKee, on the other hand, came before our community and left out any sort of disclaimer to these potential hazards to alleviate our fears, he didn't even want to call them 'smart meters' or acknowledge any potential danger or hazard, of which he could alleviate our fears.  His presentation went three minutes, probably timed to fit in most public comment periods that he speaks at as part of his job.  That left him two minutes to tell us the scientifically based concerns many have are unfounded. 

Dennis himself finds himself at the forefront of the Michigan Consumer's Energy articles in these various websites such as this one where he gets a health complaint and says they've never had a health complaint (see it at No Complaints)

Lest we forget, it was Consumer's Energy who covertly cajoled the county board and planning commission in order to get a 57 turbine wind factory with turbines unhealthily close to neighboring parcels of land, so feel confident in believing these smart meters will be 100% safe.

At least Dennis McKee assured us that their pleasant Consumer's Energy utility workers would show up with advanced notice and their ID badges handy when they come to your house. 

The worker in the brightly colored costume in the video below seems to be a utility worker, but we have seen enough movies and cop shows to know that it also could be a perfect disguise to break into a house.  The guys attitude is bad enough when asked to present his badge, but the kicker is at the end of the video when the company defends his brusqueness by defending his actions.

[Willy]

http://refusesmartmeters.com/

[Willy]

http://refusesmartmeters.com/

Another Excellent article X. It may be that the power companies who are installing these "smart meters" only think of them as a more efficient way of keeping track of the energy it's customers use but nowadays we never know if this is just  another way of controlling the population. What better way to keep us under their thumbs. This is not just  monitoring our energy use but it is actually monitoring our private activity inside our homes. I don't like these meters one bit and I'm going to request it not be installed on my house. Just the fact that the information about our power use is sent to the power company is bad enough but the security of that information and that fact that it can be intercepted is very worrisome. That jerk utility worker in the video should be fired. If that was my wife he had been nasty with I would have kicked his ohm meter up his a_s so he could read the resistance of my foot.

[Willy]

[XLFD]

Great supplementary videos, Willy. 

[XLFD]

Here's a story from today's headlines from Kalamazoo, where they've already installed their smart meters, a $22,000 electric bill for a two bedroom house, and a small business with a $13,000 bill for one month:

http://fox17online.com/2016/04/08/22000-bill-for-two-bedroom-kalama...