1) From a member who recently had an “expired” meter exchanged and now is facing an overcharge asks for his experience to be shared. Thank goodness he took photos of both meters. Has anyone else had the same experience?
Did anyone share that they were cheated during the meter exchange (analogue)? Just received my 1st bill after the exchange. Emanuel did take photos of both meters telling me that they will use those for billing. Well guess what? On the old meter they added 10 kwh and it says that the new meter started with 0 & the 1st reading from it was 953. The new meter had 09925 on it when it was installed ????? How are they going to make me pay for the extra 9000kwh? : ) : ). Phoning in, I had the bad luck that the woman seemed to know nothing and constantly put me on hold, only to end up telling me that she made notes on my account, but that I have to pay this bill & they will correct on the next bill. Already I have a $2.78 constantly appearing on my bills as overdue, when they started the legacy dues. Then I had written to them showing my detailed calculations, but was ignored, even after writing again with even more details. You seem to know how to handle them, do you have a suggestion? Somehow I feel that if I pay this $78.- something, they will then say I agreed to the readings. I am really sorry to bother you with that, but maybe sharing it on the updates, other people may be able to handle it better (if they do the same to others).
2) Illinois — Acknowledged problems with smart waters meters that have led to erroneously high water bills, with “spinning” (racking up charges even when no water is being used). Any water meter problems in BC?
http://dailynorthshore.com/2015/09/14/glenview-amends-meter-contract-amid-concerns/
3) Please keep an eye out for the collectors spread across the province that BC Hydro doesn’t want us to know about, for “security reasons”.
BC Hydro says that 2000 smart meters can be served by a single collector antenna. There will be approximately 1,800 collectors installed across B.C….
Collector meters are a special type of smart meter that can serve to collect the radiofrequency/microwave radiation signals from many surrounding buildings and send them back to the utility. Collector meters are intended to collect and re-transmit radiofrequency information for somewhere between 500-5000 homes or buildings. They have three operating antennas compared to two antennas in regular smart meters. Their radiofrequency microwave emissions are higher and they send wireless signal much more frequently. Collector meters can be placed on a home or other building like smart meters, and there is presently no way to know which a homeowner or property owner might receive.
http://www.citizensforsafetechnology.org/Identify-a-Mesh-Network,2,4288
4) New law effective Jan. 1/16 requires all water (including Nestles ?? and who-knows-about-fracking ?? ) use to be measured, even ground water from wells. And look at the ridiculous licensing system, where a community could be cut off because a golf course has had a license for a longer period of time.
New law gives B.C. more authority involving water use – Legislation comes into effect Jan. 1 by Rob Shaw – Times Colonist – September 14, 2015:
– http://www.timescolonist.com/news/b-c/new-law-gives-b-c-more-authority-involving-water-use-1.2057707
….The new groundwater rules will require users to measure and report the amount of water they pump from the ground. The government monitors some aquifer levels through a small network of observation test wells, but lacks the staff to check the accuracy of what’s being pumped by licence holders….
Some water analysts argue that in the future, B.C. should move to a system where everything is metered, regulated and charged based on use. Many homes in Metro Vancouver still pay for water at a flat rate because they don’t have a meter to track use.
“Every community should be metered, otherwise we can’t account for it,” Schreier said.
“Typical small communities in the Interior, they lose 40 to 50 per cent of their water through leaky pipes and they don’t have the resources to fix it. That’s crazy.”
5) US states are beginning to look at the broader picture, not being led to make quick decisions with long-term expensive, dangerous implications, like smeters.
“Many states are, like New Hampshire, trying to decide how to react. Massachusetts and particularly New York are much further along with investigations into how to change the electric grid in their states, producing such things as utility-owned solar farms and upcoming microgrids”
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Letters:
From: X
Sent: September 15, 2015
To: complaints@bcuc.com
Cc: Jane Shin MLA <jane.shin.mla@leg.bc.ca>;
Subject: smartmeter fees review
Mr. Wruck,
This is to add my voice to those who are calling for a review of B.C.’s Legacy Meter Fees, presently the highest in North America. I fully realize that your commission was muzzled by the BC government under Direction 4 in regard to setting the fee. Still, I believe it to be within the bounds of your ability to make my complaint and those of others known to Bill Bennett, B.C’.s Energy Minister and to not simply direct us to do so. Please inform him also that, as an Analog Meter owner, my meter is NOT being read manually by Hydro and that I’m simply receiving bills based on their estimates, possibly taken from past records of my power consumption.
Perhaps you should explain to us, if you can, Hydro’s reasoning behind the fee of $32.40 a month, being the highest on this continent. What is the “investigation” they had to do? Does that mean that Analog Meter owners are under “investigation” for some kind of suspicious activities? That is certainly what it sounds like. And what about the “infrastructure” charge? What new “infrastructure” had to be set up if not for just smartmeters? The only apparent meaning of the word is that Analog Meter owners are now paying the purchase cost of the smartmeter infrastructure.
As I’m sure you know, our court date awaits when the legality of your government’s Legacy Meter fees will finally begin to be decided.
Yours truly,
X
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Newsletter prepared by Sharon Noble
“An activist is someone who cannot help but fight for something. That person is not usually motivated by a need for power, or money, or fame, but in fact driven slightly mad by some injustice, some cruelty, some unfairness – So much so that he or she is compelled by some moral engine to act to make it better.”- Eve Ensler