Engineering News

This is definitely a two-street issue: (1) the power companies get minute-by-minute realtime data on consumption down at the home level, while (2) the home-owner MAY or MAY NOT receive any benefit, especially, *if* they are not aware the power company "changed" meters -- they didn't tell me, I had to ask!

There was a program awhile back, that if you signed up and used power during off-peak times, you would get a break. Such as clothes washer/dryer, dishwashing and such.

And this would confirm that you were actually doing it.

We've had one for at least 5 years in Mesa. After the novelty wore off we went back to our wasteful ways.

For us, it required too much of a lifestyle change, so now, we just ignore it and pay the bill every month.

Ultimately, the utilities want to be able to be saved the inconvenience of figuring out uniform rates regardless of the time of day (demand). They will just charge you what they pay plus their profit and overhead. The onus will then be transferred to the consumer to figure how and when they will consume electricity or they will be stuck with rather large bills.

This is the dirty little lie none of the utilities will admit. It's coming, mark my words. And to think BGE is going to put a surcharge on my bills to pay for these damn things. I'm going to make you pay for the technology so I can make you pay more. Disgusting.

It's unfortunate those with tin-foil hats are distracting the public debate from what will be the real problem with electronic metering.

You can opt out, I believe.

Until recently, here in the Baltimore area, there was no opt-out option. My understanding is that the PSC (Public Service Commission, state oversight of utilities) is now requiring BGE to offer the opt-out. (News story, nothing official yet.) We'll see how that plays out. I have yet to see anything from BGE on the subject.

This reminds me of how Comcast cable kept touting that with the change over to digital TV for OTA transmission, that Comcast customers would not have to buy new TV's. I remember telling folks that they will not continue to consume bandwidth for analog TV (NTSC) on their network for much longer. Sure enough, within a year, they started dropping analog channels and renting out cable boxes for channels that used to be analog. (They had digital boxes out long before the FCC required change over). Within two years, all analog channels were gone and if you wanted cable TV, you had to get their cable box. First two lowest-end digital boxes were included in the plan. Extra boxes or "upgrades" you pay rental fees. And the rates kept going up. I would dump cable TV all together but the wife . . .

I'd be more than happy to get ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox OTA and not pay any cable bill. At least I wouldn't have to pay a monthly fee for TV I don't want to watch.

" At least I wouldn't have to pay a monthly fee for TV I don't want to watch."

Amen to that!

I wonder what happens if you make a "tin foil" hat for the smart meter? Will it revert to being dumb?

Maybe they could use the smart meters to choke back the electric useage of those people who profess that less is better and prevent any new transmission lines or generation all in the name of the environment or who are just plain old NIMBYs when it comes to increasing supply to meet an increased demand.

If some people were really that that serious about reducing the demand they could volunteer for Soylent Green feedstock.

If these meters work as described in the first comment after the article, I can't imagine there not being a huge public outcry. Anybody know if this has been verified? Here's one article, but it has no date that I can see. Another short article includes this statement: "Energy InSight is more than a meter, however. It's a complex system that integrates many technologies. Data is transmitted from the meters to cell relays, which are wireless devices installed on power distribution poles. Cell relays pick up signals from meters in the vicinity and transmit the data via radio to a "Take out Point (TOP)." TOPs collect data from cell relays within a several-mile radius and deliver it via microwave or fiber optic cable to CenterPoint Energy's data center, where computing systems gather and process 96 daily reads per meter."

The marketing video linked at this site gives an overview of the way it is supposed to work. I think they''d do better to be able to point to survey results (with contact information available by consent) showing how much happier their customers are with "smart" meters. The video and web site make it sound good, but I don't see any kind of proof that customers endorse it.

Will we need to resort to this? Even if we don't this is instructional. Knowledge can be power -- no pun intended.