By: Redi Kw from Marin

Redi Kw from Marin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 03:26:26 +0000

Study: Utility Smart Meter Costs Far Outweigh Non Existent Benefits to Consumers
Electric Utilities across the United States are rapidly deploying millions of smart meters as part of an industry- wide , federally and consumer funded effort to build an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).
Many people question the need to spend all of this federal taxpayer stimulus tax money and also the ratepayers money to upgrade the meters that will not do one thing to avoid power failures of the transmission or distribution grid, will not conserve energy in any way, but actually will increase electric load because each meter uses electricity to transmit at least 2 frequencies concurrently and the collector meters transmit 3 frequencies, or help incorporate the new wind and solar power that is rapidly coming online.
The new meters will not do a thing to improve the power grid, but it appears that the utilities will reap large amounts of profit from selling the meters, installing the meters, eliminating meter readers and rate increases.
The Brattle Group prepared for the Edison Foundation’s Institute for Electric Efficiency, the net profits of smart meters could be more than $96 million over a 20-year period for a U.S. utility serving a million residential customers.
In all cases, there would be no benefit at all to customers who participate in smart meter-enabled program offerings. For solar generators and electric vehicle chargers, customers need completely separate meters called E9(b) meters that are not the smart meters being deployed now.
These new E9 meters for vehicle charging are sold separately to consumers, work must be done by the power authorities and cost from $4000 to $6000 each, plus the electrical work to hire an electrician to upgrade the main panel , run a dedicated 30 amp 240 circuit to each new level 2 charger, plus permit and inspection fees. Also an engineering report might need to be done by the power authority to evaluate the transformer to see if it can handle the additional load(s) from the new vehicle chargers.
Also the deployment of millions of new electric meters that use electrical energy to transmit, receive, supervise and repeat data 24/7 will require millions more watts of power to operate the meters alone, and also the data collectors, cell phone repeaters and servers to process all this new data.
It is truly a wonderful scam to make a bunch of work and money for all who are involved in this, and also a way to sell more power and eliminate jobs.

Comments on: (At Least) Two Reasons Why California Utility Companies Should Be Nervous About a Growing Public Backlash

By: Redi Kw from Marin