Comments on: Utilities: Proud to Know When You Make a Cup of Tea

By: Mike Lee

Mike Lee — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 05:50:50 +0000

NPR’s Science Friday program had a segment today on the smart grid
titled “Building A Better Electric Grid”, which gives away the bias.
All 3 guests were with businesses making money from the smart grid.

One of them with OPower.com bragged they “try to get as much information as they
can” on customers, such as county assessor data, to combine with the complete
smartmeter data they get from utilities, on which they do analytics to
figure out what appliances customers have and how they’re using them, and
“under cover of the utility send messages to customers”. When asked a softball
question about privacy he said “people are realistic that data is out there”,
“utilities need to provide a new level of service in the information age”, his
company will be serving 10 million customers by the end of the year, and not a
single customer signed up to get the messages they send out. Nobody commented
on the contradiction between the last two statements, nor the contradiction with
another guest’s statement that the smart grid is about giving customers choices.
Nobody asked what other uses this company may make of the data, on which
there’s the potential to make lots more money (note Google makes $billions this
way). Their product overview webpage says they use all communication channels
including email, but doesn’t say how they get people’s email addresses.
Their targetted messaging webpage says they will not suggest costly options to
low-income customers but doesn’t say how they get their income.

I’m all in favor of the goal of conserving energy and providing consumers
info to do that, but there’s something a bit amiss about redefining that to
mean treating customers as targets to be invaded and spammed and pushed to
sign up for programs that benefit the utility, rather than empowering
citizens to be in control of their lives (and be in control of information
about them), and make decisions based on criteria of their choosing.

While the show focussed mostly on the smart grid rather than meters,
when a caller raised the issue of EMF sensitivity to the meters the guests
dismissed it with “experts say there is no major health effect”, “the levels are
lower than cellphones”, “people dont like change”, “fear of the unknown”, etc.

I thought the program’s website http://www.sciencefriday.com used to have a
way for people to post comments on the website but I don’t see that now; the
contact page has their email and phone. It wouldn’t hurt to call on them to
air the other side of the story, especially if there are specific people who
can be suggested that are knowledgable, verbally articulate, and willing to
speak on the show. As of 2004 it had 1.5 million listeners.

Rebuttals to some of the points proponents make can be found at
http://bluegreenbytes.com/w/emfsmart

By: Redi Kilowatt

Redi Kilowatt — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 01:15:43 +0000

The utilities companies have always known how much power a customer uses in a month, and all customers who care can read their own meter every hour if they want to, but that is not necessary if the customer reads the rating plate on the appliances and devices. We already know when something is on or off, so these new meters really serve no useful function to the customers.
There are many wealthy people that live in large estates in Marin. These people have:
irrigation well pumps, sewer ejector pumps, electric gates and hillevators, motorized window shades and skylights, servants quarters houses, pool houses and pools, spas, saunas and hot tubs, steam rooms, elevators, home theaters, trading rooms (many computers and monitors), electric excercise machines, multiple freezers and big high end sub zero refrigerators, communications equipment, intercom systems, security systems, multiple water heaters and circulation pumps, shoe “closets” the size of your bedroom with fantastic lighting systems, dehumidifiers, humidifiers, multiple 6 ton air conditioners, industrial sized ranges and ovens, and tea kettles and toasters too !
The electric bill is usually around average of $3,500 per month, but that varies on the season, when it’s raining, they don’t need to run the irrigation well pumps, which often cost $1,000 per month or more to operate.
I know this because I work at high end estates. Some of these places that I have worked at in southern Marin have 2000 amp main services, and huge electric rooms, mechanical equipment rooms and computer rooms.
The point that I’m trying to make is that there is no way that the power company can tell what you are using your energy for, and that they really don’t care what you use it for , as long as you pay the exorbitant bill in a timely manor.
Think about it, they are in business to sell power, and the MO THE BETTAH.
The power companies cannot dictate to customers how to run their businesses (or houses). For example, they cannot say to BEST BUY, you are running too many TVs, you must turn them off during the hours of 3:00pm to 9:00pm, or to large facilities owners like shopping malls, office buildings and manufacturing plants, turn off your heaters , air conditioners and lighting because all these new radio meters are hogging up too much juice, or to giant hospitals, your CAT scan machines are using too much electricity for mostly unneeded scans and testing , shut em down ! WE NEED THE POWER TO ELIMINATE METER READING JOBS.
No way, no how, the power companies will never dictate to corporations how to run their businesses. They will have to go to the CPUC and request even more rate increases (and maybe some federal tax money) to pay for all the new generation plants and grid improvements just to power the new radio billing meters.
And about the big new wave of electric vehicles, they are not selling many of them , sales are dismal, but GE just got $50 million of federal stimulus bailout money to buy a fleet of Chevy Volts .

By: RobertWilliams

RobertWilliams — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:20:13 +0000

TWO MORE THINGS:

1. Information customers can access is NOT real time and it is NOT formatted for customer use so it does NOT assist customers to use less energy or lower their utility bills.

The information assists the Utility Company to bill customers and shut off customer power remotely.

The information will also be shared with corporations that will die for this information to know how to approach and sell products to each customer.

The government will also have access to this information so that every move made in every home will be known and the government will be able to protect us from the dishonesty and corruption of our neighbors.

2. High-tech home robbers (and high-tech child molesters) will also hack this information and know exactly your habits and when you are not home (and when your children are home).