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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.