When researching the benefits of a Utility Smart Meters, one can easily realize the benefit is for the Utility Company and not for the customer. Ever wonder why they are so gun ho on everyone getting smart meters? Here’s a run down of the benefits touted by the Utility Companies that only benefit the utility company itself and not the end user.
Are Smart Meters More Accurate ?
Smart meters provide more accurate billing, so how does that help the customer? In reality, more accurate billing allows the utility to get paid sooner and quicker. There’s no change in the total amount that is owed, but now the Utility can bill you sooner. Furthermore, the smart meters can provide more accurate estimates of the utility’s incoming revenue for more strategic spending to benefit the company.
It also allows the utility company to disconnect you without a physical visit.
It also states online that smart meters can accurately measure total usage and time of usage, but, unlike popular belief, they may not explicitly identify which specific device is running.
But, they’re Totally Automated
The ability of smart meters to be totally automated is another benefit that helps the company and not the consumer. It means they can hire less personnel from having to read meters. It’s a totally computerized system, that requires less manual interaction, which mean less workers having to read meters. It means, less trucks need to be owned, less maintenance on trucks and less vacation pay, health benefits, and retirement for employees. Question is does this benefit the consumer? As well as, “Is this company ‘savings” going to be passed onto the consumer?”
Create Better Energy Savings
These “better savings” that are provided by the smart meters, analyzes your personal use and tells you what you can do to change your energy habits. This assumes that you don’t know what you’re doing, and that you are not aware of your own lifestyle. You are not aware of the number of times you open your refrigerator, or you are not aware of when you plug in your electric car. Smart meters can only provide savings if they tell you what to change – like getting a new stove, or plugging your car in at a certain time. Do you really want your utility company to tell you how you can and cannot live?
Do Smart Meters Provide Faster Outage Restoration?
Again, “faster outage restoration,” just means they can have less people in the office to answer the phones of people calling in to tell them their power is out. The smart meters allows the utility company to know your power is out, and can eliminate from having human personnel from answering the phone. Instead, the utility company can install an automated answering message from the computer to answer calls asking about outages. Now, this is not very scientific, but this means that smart meters really can’t speed up the physical repairs needed to restore power faster.
How Does A Smart Meter Save Energy?
There’s no way that Smart meters can actually save 15% of energy use . . . the ONLY thing that can reduce energy use is YOU. In reality, smart meters can only generate savings by telling you what YOU NEED to change — whether that means buying a new appliance or plugging in your electric car at specific times. It even states online that “AMI meters only measure the total electricity passing through the main house feed, not individual circuits or plugs.” The real question is: do you want your utility company deciding how you should live and use energy?
Privacy Issue:
Do you know what Smart Metes know about YOU? Do you know that your private information can be sold to third party businesses? Who’s to say that the utility will change their privacy procedures in the future? They can “estimate” if you work at home, when you leave to go to work, if you go to church on Sunday, and if you go out to eat on Fridays or Saturdays, and if you have an electric car or not.
Managing the High Demand for Electric Vehicles
Here we go again. The utility company will most likely in the future, be telling you when you can plug in your electric car. Smart Meters cannot help you use less energy, and it will not save any money on your electric bill, but it will help the utility company to manage peak usage times better. So, you will be told when you can plug in your electric car and when you can’t, which only helps the utility company.
Where Your Meter Is Located Matters
You may need to be concerned about where your smart meter is located. Smart Meters are an EMF emitting Devices. EMF frequencies can affect your sleep, energy, and overall health.
To opt out of a NIPSCO smart meter (Advanced Metering Infrastructure or AMI -2), you must contact NIPSCO directly to request a non-communicating meter, which requires manual reading. This option is typically available for residential electric customers, but usually involves a one-time fee and a recurring monthly fee for manual meter reading. Nipsco’s contact number is 800-464-7726.
Steps to Opt Out of NIPSCO Smart Meter:
- According to online testimonials, they Come out and Switch Meters without telling you. It’s our opinion that the ONLY Way to Get out of this is to put a padlock on the meter.
- Understand Fees: Be prepared for a one-time installation/processing fee and a monthly manual read fee, depending on current regulatory filings.
- Manual Reading: Opting out means you may be required to submit your own meter readings monthly, or pay for a technician to read it manually.
- Restrictions: Customers with solar panels or specific rate plans may not be eligible to opt out.
If a smart meter has already been installed, you may still be able to request a replacement with a non-communicating meter, but you may incur additional removal fees.
In 2018 according to EFF.org the court recognized that data from these devices reveals intimate details about what’s going on inside the home that would otherwise be unavailable to the government without a physical search. The Illinois court held that residents have a reasonable expectation of privacy in this data and that the government’s access of it constitutes a “search.”
The Illinois Seventh Circuit recognized that this energy usage data “reveals information about the happenings inside a home.” Individual appliances, the court explained, have distinct energy-consumption patterns or “load signatures.” These load signatures allow you to tell not only when people are home, but what they are doing. The court held that the “ever-accelerating pace of technological development carries serious privacy implications” and that smart meters “are no exception.”
We applaud the Seventh Circuit for recognizing that smart meters pose serious risks to the privacy of all of our homes, and that rudely applying analog-era case law to the digital age simply doesn’t work.
We hope that courts around the country follow the Seventh Circuit in Illinois in concluding that the Fourth Amendment protects residents from keeping smart meter data.
(Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/08/win-landmark-seventh-circuit-decision-says-fourth-amendment-applies-smart-meter). Special thanks to David Gulbransen, pro bono counsel for the plaintiff, for his hard work on this landmark victory.
HERE’S PROOF THAT SMART METERS CAN INVADE YOUR PRIVACY:
They use the smart meters to do data mining. https://smartgridawareness.org/2015/05/19/utilities-excited-about-mining-smart-meter-data/
OTHER SMART METER RELATED ARTICLES . . .
Utilities ‘Very Excited’ about
Mining Smart Meter Data and
According to SkyVision Solutions and Smart Grid Awareness: “Very sensitive information can be revealed about homes, and homes are the most sacred privacy environment,” said Nancy King, an Oregon State University business law and ethics academic who’s studying smart meter deployments.
Access and control of that energy usage data will be key, she added. “Most consumers are just unaware about how their data feeds into the Big Data machine and are powerless to do much about it.”
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Smart Meters Have Environmental Impacts:
An ever-increasing number of studies, as well as much anecdotal evidence, points to the harm that wireless frequencies are causing to our environment. The combined effects of wireless radiation on pollinators (including bees and butterflies) and food plants, along with the degradation of our food supply caused by GMOs, are creating a perfect storm for the collapse of the food supply and of the world’s ecosystems . . .
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Smart Meters Have Several Risks You Should Know About
Harm Your Health, Harm the Environment, Collect Data You Might Prefer Be Kept Private, Will Raise Your Electric Rates,
Many people in Michigan are experiencing severe health effects from DTE and Consumers Energy smart meters and their radio-off opt-out meters. (DTE calls smart meters advanced meters and uses descriptions like advanced metering technology in an effort to avoid the negative publicity associated with smart meters.) Smart meters and the radio-off opt-out meters have a dramatic impact on health because of the pulsed waves they emit, both radiofrequency (wireless) waves and what is commonly known as dirty electricity
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