1) In Oregon the utility companies are telling their customers the same inaccurate, misleading, false info that BC Hydro told and is telling us. It is no coincidence that utility companies all over the place have the same misinformation, as if they have been given a story to tell to justify the smeters and to calm concerns. We’ve seen these same statements for the last 8 years.
Rumors of health effects surrounding Pacific Power smart meters dispelled
“Today, we talked to the regional business manager about concerns some people have about the health effects of those meters, specifically, radio frequencies.
Sam Carter says the research shows that those radio frequencies are not damaging to your health…
According to the Pacific Power website, standing in front of a smart meter for a full year is still less RF exposure than a 15-minute phone call.
Carter also says the meters only record electricity use, not personal data.”
2) And in Washington, why the opt-out fee, when meter reading was included in the rates already? Same question we asked and never got a satisfactory answer from either Hydro or BCUC. More money in the pocket of the corporation, without any justification as far as we’ve been told. And we still don’t know how much they’ve collected or how must was actually used for additional services? Nor why, after paying all that extortion for so many years, we now are forced to take a smeter or have our power cut.
Smart meter charge unneeded
“…if they insist to continue with this ridiculous charge, they could extend the “no fee required” to veterans? After all, we consistently hear how charitable Avista is to our community. C’mon, Avista, drop the charge to opt out of smart meters. We never have had a separate charge to have monthly meter readers, why start now?”
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/dec/14/smart-meter-charge-unneeded/
3) Utilities tell their customers that they don’t gather personal data, but that is not what the industry is saying and planning on. We know that from ITRON’s own material.
A smart world needs the right data
The types of data to be covered are helpfully categorised into five key categories: assets (what, where, how used); operation (utilisation, capacity, constraints); market (prices, trades, contracts); personal (smart meter information and individual usage profile); and supplementary (weather, fuel poverty, building performance)…
This is important as we look for ways to use data more effectively in the energy system. For example, households, being prosumers, provide aggregators and networks with the ability to feed into local grids and support local infrastructure – such as the expansion of how and where electric vehicles can be adopted on a more widespread basis.
The trials undertaken so far have shown there is an appetite for more efficient and dynamic energy use where made available. The taskforce could usefully examine situations where a legitimate interest in data produced by consumers in a network replaces a requirement for explicit consent.”
https://utilityweek.co.uk/smart-world-needs-right-data/
4) Our data is so valuable. A long time ago when the discussion about smeters was starting, I read an article that said that the data itself would be worth more to the companies than the product they were selling or the service they were providing. Anyone with info about the huge data centres that have been built, one near Kelowna, I think?
[Kamloops, BC – http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1337485/sustainment-and-middleware-development-services-to-support-bc-hydro
&
– https://biv.com/article/2014/02/telus-opens-75-million-data-centre-in-kamloops
&
– http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/telus-opens-new-internet-data-centre-in-b-c/88954]
Smart Meter Data Management Market to 2023 ( 16.4% of CAGR Expected) Prominent Players Profiled Oracle, Arad Group, Trilliant Holdings, Elster Group GmbH, Itron, Siemens AG, Aclara Technologies, Enoro, ElectSolve Technology
“The global smart meter data management market was valued at $661.1 million in 2016 and is projected to reach $1,896.3 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 16.4% from 2017 to 2023. The services market for smart meter data management is anticipated to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period.”
https://tinyurl.com/marketfordata
Sharon Noble, Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology in which nobody understands *anything* about science and technology.
And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power sooner or later is going to blow up in our faces.”
~ Carl Sagan, 1996