Warning: PG&E Installing ‘Smart’ Meters on Solar Homes

PG&E has a new ‘smart’ meter designed to go on grid-tied solar homes. Make sure your friends and family who have solar know that they need to inform the utility they do not permit this radiating surveillance device on their homes.

If you or someone you know in California has solar panels on their home and has been resting on their laurels, thinking they were safe from smart meter deployment, think again!  We’ve just received reports that PG&E has been going around installing its new solar compatible smart meters on people’s homes.  Make sure your friends and family are aware that they need to let the utility know that ‘smart’ meters are not permitted on their property.   People have also been locking their old meters up if they are not in a position to keep a watchful eye.

The bottom line is that- despite what the utility industry says- ‘smart’ meters are not necessary to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the grid.  Let’s take a look at Germany, who have largely rejected smart grid technology as a false solution to their energy problems (and are phasing out nuclear).  A colleague who recently attended a renewable energy event in Europe reports that the solar revolution is well and alive in Germany:

•  ‘This summer in Germany there were days when the total contribution of renewable energy was 61%. This is a huge amount! It is interesting that Germany is achieving this without implementing smart grid technology. In fact, they are turning away from it. It show that implementing the smart grid under the guise of “being green” is false to the core.’

• ‘The cost of solar energy is now so low that almost every new home is now being fitted with solar panels. It is cheaper than getting energy from the grid – even without subsidies. Over the next 20-40 years, this will change our world. It will be cheaper to produce energy at home than at some plant far away. The energy grid may become obsolete. Ultimately, this is what the utilities are afraid of. I think the smart grid is an attempt to delay this inevitability. ‘

Don’t let profit hungry utilities get in the way of supplying inexpensive, renewable energy to your community.  And whatever you do, don’t allow them to deploy a smart meter on your home.

RF measurements indicate that these new solar-compatible smart meters are emitting 20,000 pulses of microwave radiation every day.   The word “NEMS” at the bottom indicates this is a net metering system according to our engineer on the inside.

Wireless “Smart” Meters: Still not green, still not safe, still NOT OK.

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10 Responses to Warning: PG&E Installing ‘Smart’ Meters on Solar Homes

  1. Mojack says:

    Had my pv system installed about 3 years ago about 4 months ago I saw someone at my front gate. Low and behold they were there to put a smart meter on my panel. Needless to say my 8 foot spiked iron fence and gate provided more then enough time to come. Outside. And tell them in no uncertain terms to not step 1 foot on my property. I pointed to the security cameras and the no trespassing sign( trespassers will be shot survivors will be shot again) I got the threat I’m going to have to pay to not have the meter changed. That’s when I laughed in his face and went back inside. Haven’t seen anyone back. If I was at work or out. I don’t think they could have hoped the fence , but they always seem to come like a thief in the night to do these things.

  2. Dan says:

    I have a SmartMeter, which at the time seemed a good Idea, but since it was installed I put in a diy solar system. At present, I generate about 2300 watts of power, going to add another array to bring it up to around 3500 watts. I thought my smartmeter was working fine because when I generate more power than I currently am using, the meter said I was sending out power into the grid. The total useage reading actually rolled back. This is a bogus reading. I started noticing that I wasn’t saving as much as I should be on my bill. So I started taking meter readings every night before going to bed and some days I only used under 5kwh of power, but checking online for that day, it showed I used 18 kwh. I soon realized that all of my excess power sent to the grid wasn’t being credited even though the ‘odometer’ reading showed a marked decrease in useage.
    Even though PG&E will charge me $75 one time charge and a $10 meter reading fee every month, it will still be to my advantage to switch it out with an analog meter. My question is, are all of PG&E’s analog meters reversable (bidirectional)? I read somewhere that not all analog meters are bidirectional.
    Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

    • W.P says:

      When I had my solar installed I needed to get a new meter before I could, officially, take advantage of net metering and “have my meter run backwards.”

      The electrician, and solar installer, explained that my old meter might have run backwards but the negative watts didn’t always register. For that reason, the local power company installed a bi-directional meter (says “bidir” on it). It’s been working fine since 6/11.

    • Owen DeLong says:

      Actually the problem you are having is that you did not go through the proper process with PG&E to become a supplier to the grid. All you need to do is fill out a simple application and switch to NEMS (Net Electric Metered Service). PG&E will come out and perform a cursory safety inspection (making sure that your system will not backfeed the grid in the event of an outage because that can be dangerous to service personnel and others, as it would keep wires live after safety systems had tripped to disconnect them from the grid).

      I have smart meters on my Solar system (one which measures solar production) and one which is for PG&E and both have been trouble and hassle free. After my solar system was installed and before PG&E completed their process (roughly 3 weeks after installation), my utilization now matches and I am now credited for energy supplied to the grid.

      Prior to that, because I was not on a NEM tariff, I did not get credit for electricity supplied to the grid.

      I do not understand all of the hostility to smart meters on this page. 20,000 pulses of microwave radiation is meaningless. Microwaves are at roughly 2.4Ghz which means that 20,000 pulses is well under a millisecond of exposure. You get more than that from your WiFi network, your cellular telephone, or your microwave every day. Heck, you get more than that from reading this text on your computer.

      The microwave pulses from the meter are extremely low power (typically under 1/2 watt) and are only emitted when it is transmitting data to the utility. Most of this occurs a few times a day and most utilities are using cellular networks, so the pulse is literally equivalent to the meter sending an SMS message on a cell phone.

      • Will MacClymont Davis says:

        The Dr. Oz Show showed medical technology measuring the damage to the brain, comparing five year olds, ten year olds, and adults. Adults have a thicker skull and therefore a better shield.
        Prefrontal left right EEG coherence is correlated to intelligence and moral reasoning scores. Thus less EEG coherence will indicate lower intelligence and lower more reasoning scores. A high coherence score indicating optimal intelligence and ethical thinking will probably not be possible within two feet of a Neptune smart meter, using physics equations? Putting kids consistently within two feet of a school wifi which will interfere with brain order, will probably show up as lower achievement scores?

  3. Rick Mahmoud says:

    It would be great to hear from you with some advice. I have an analog meter. Well, I had an analog meter, in my absence LADWP (Los Angeles, CA) came and installed a smart meter and made such a big deal for about two months that they had to come and replace it with a fully analog meter similaer to the one I had originally (Yes, no worries I have thoroughly inspected the new analog meter to make sure if truly analog and not a dummy analog exterior with RF inside, as we have seen around).

    The problem now is that – after my solar panel system has been installed – LADWP came to do a last inspection and to turn the system on, but when they came the unbox a smart meter to to replace my analog, which I didn’t allow and sent them back home. They claimed that there is no such a thing as a PV system installed and net metering energy with an analog meter. They claim these analog meters do not go backwards.

    I need to get my PV system turned on and going and I am hearing that analog bi-directional meter DO exist.

    Please, if you have any, send any and all info, even model numbers, where I can furnish myself of argument to fight this new battle or I am not only not going to get my solar system on, but I am going to be charged for it or penalized contractually for obstruction its turn on date. The solar company will be RIGHT to do so.

    Thanks,

    Rick

  4. Rhonda W. says:

    I would also like to have a source for bidirectional analog meter. I’m in N.H., but also fighting the digital meter over the past year. We had solar installed in November, and the power company (Eversource) has stalled coming to do their inspection for the last 13 weeks–not only have they claimed an analog meter won’t work with the grid-tied system, they are now demanding I produce a deed to the property (originally they demanded I have the agreement co-signed by my father, who has been dead for 10 years!)

  5. Bobbie D. says:

    If you have solar with a smart meter, the smart meter tracks the energy you give back to the grid and you get paid the wholesale price for it.

    If you have solar with a analog meter it simply runs backwards and you get full “credit” for the energy you give to the grid.

    You are crazy if you don’t use a opt out analog meter with your home solar system.

  6. Fred Klan III says:

    I agree with Bobbie. I personally have used an island protection gridtie inverter and watched my analog meter run backwards.

    What I honestly think is happening is that the power company doesn’t want to come out and read a meter that isn’t going to pay for the employee that is coming out to check the usage. Would you pay someone to go out to a person’s property just to see that you owe them money? That’s not a sustainable business model. And you would lose money at and exponential rate. So they are automating the system by putting the power in their hands so when your meter spins backwards it can be at an adjusted ratio and all they have to do is look at a physical number instead of doing the math in their head… Because leta face it. If all you do is go around checking meters you don’t do math very often and you can make mistakes that cause alot of issues with refunds and other things.

    Like Bobbie said. It would be a 1:1 ration if you use analog… Which is the most fair way to do it, but we all know they don’t want it to be even. I can see why they only want to pay a percentage to the individual because they want to make their investment back for the infrastructure… Otherwise it just turns it straight over to the people.

    Maybe our local governments can buy the infrastructure from the utilities over time? I feel that would be fair, and then the utilities get paid by the state to do maintenance… They would just be phased out of selling energy to the people and would only manage it… Which is really what we need once we all have solar on our roofs. There will be so much power we won’t know what to do with it.

  7. Josh Hart says:

    Posted on behalf of mcoltan@gmail.com :

    I live in Northern California, I just recently (5 months ago) installed solar, however PG&E will not “interconnect” me because I won’t accept a smart meter. I’m an opt-out customer, however they are forcing me to accept a smart meter. PG&E’s reasoning is that they are on a new “tariff” for solar ( NEM2) which requires time of use (TOU)metering. The analog meter I have is not compatible with TOU metering, although it does spin backwards when I turn on the solar system. They are offering me a traditional smart meter (cancel opt out status), a cellular based smart meter (continue to pay xtra as opt-out customer), or a land-line based smart meter (continue to pay xtra as opt-out customer). None of these options are acceptable to me as they are ALL smart meters with 2-way communication with utility (definition of smart meter). I have filed an informal complaint to CPUC, and an appeal to the decision. My next step is a formal complaint to the CPUC, although I’m not expecting a positive decision. The CPUC have been dragging their feet, and are extremely slow in response time….It’s already been 5 months just to get through the informal complaint/appeal process!

    Is anyone else in this predicament? Let’s get together and sue these bastards! I’m at my wit’s end with this, any legal help, advise, or referral is appreciated. Feel free to contact me mcoltan@gmail.com

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