1) The Public Agency Safety Management Association in the USA believes that $$meters are not only vulnerable to cyberattacks but are also unsafe.
“Not only do Smart Meters not have built-in security features against cybersecurity, they do not have built-in features to warn of hot sockets, overheating or fires. In essence, PASMA feels Smart Meters are unsafe. PASMA feels AMI Smart Meters should be withdrawn, since they are hazards to human health and safety, plus cybersecurity risks.
Since Smart Meters operate on microwave technology, hackers or terrorists not only could compromise a homeowner’s smart-house grid and appliances and steal pertinent personal information, they also could initiate an electrical power grid failure cascade that potentially could impact a large percentage of a grid system, either locally, regionally or nationally, since it’s been designated as an obvious “high risk.””
2) $$meters will be discussed on the CBC BC Almanac Friday, Jan. 22 from 12-1 pm. The topic is “are they worth the cost“.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/programs/bcalmanac
Stations for various areas are listed here:
http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/explore/facilities/bc/
I don’t know if call ins are allowed but I hope if you can email or call in that you will consider voicing your concerns. Here are phone numbers and email info.
http://www.cbc.ca/bcalmanac/contact/
3) In Mr. Mackin’s article in The Province about BC Hydro’s having to replace 88,000 faulty meters [https://web.archive.org/web/20200611044558/https://theprovince.com/news/b-c-hydro-must-remove-more-than-88000-smart-meters], BC Hydro said the cost for the new meters would be $200 each. Granted this is far less than the original cost of $550, which included accompanying infrastructure, such as collectors, but $200 is far too high. Look at the chart in which I have tracked the costs of the programs, comparing with the initial projected costs for BC Hydro.
www.stopsmartmetersbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/COSTS-ON-A-PER-METER-BASIS-Feb.-20-2015-1.pdf
You’ll see that many initial costs for the entire program (meters plus associated infrastructure) are less or slightly more than these replacement meters. OUTRAGEOUS!!
4) The Black Press has provided the rebuttal by BC Hydro to Mr. Dix’s article but much of the info provided by BC Hydro and Reimer is not credible, just as the financial reports they finally provided are incomplete. Are there really 13,320 of us who have opted out? Why should we believe this figure when BC Hydro has lied to us so often??
I asked for the financial figures related to the fees – how much has been gathered and what are the associated costs for the opt outs – but never got them. Why? Is it because BC Hydro doesn’t want to let us figure out how many opt outs there are, or how little extra it costs to read our meters and send us a bill?
– http://www.revelstokereview.com/news/365964231.html?mobile=true
(Please Comment) &
(Please Comment) &
– http://www.nanaimobulletin.com/news/365964231.html
(Please Comment)
5) Baltimore Gas and Electric has put out this tweet about outages during tomorrow’s blizzard:
BGE Tweet this morning:
Pls call 877.778.2222 for downed wires and outages or at http://BGE.com/reportanoutage , incl. those with smart meters.
https://twitter.com/MyBGE/status/690179881842380800
Letters:
From: Lori Giesbrecht (name included with author’s permission)
To: smartmeters@bchydro.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2016 9:50 PM
Subject: Attention Michael – BC Hydro smart metering specialist
Hello, Michael,
After 3 years of emailing BC Hydro, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate a human reply to my email. Thank you so much!
Please humor me, sir and take the time to read my response from start to finish before you decide whether myself and all the other 70,000ish of your other bullied and fed up customers in BC are worth listening to…
It’s really very simple, Michael:
http://www.theprovince.com/health/hydro+must+remove+more+than+smart+meters/11660282/story.html
at anywhere between $200 and $500 each paid by your customers, regardless of how perfect, amazing, cost efficient, state of the art, even though they’ve had a long journey after being removed from homes in California and shipped up to BC to be installed on our homes because they have a shorter lifespan, regardless of how perfect, or how amazing, cost efficient, state of the art, rigorously tested and wonderful the BC Liberals, Bill Bennett, Patrick Wruck, BC Hydro and Fortis BC think, your smart meters are…
It seems you are all missing a few facts that none of you even considered or addressed before you decided to take your smart meter program and try to stuff it on our homes, our lives, into our faces and down our throats.
Whether you and everyone else I’ve sent this letter to like it or not:
1- It is my Democratic right, it is my legal right and it is in my Canadian Charter of rights to decide and to choose for myself if a radio frequency device will enter my private property and be installed on and attached to my home by you by FortisBC or by anyone or anything else.
2- It is my right to decide if a radio frequency device will even operate on my private property that is the sanction and home to my family and I. My home is also my place of work as I own and operate a home based licensed business inside my home and is no different there either.
3- It is most certainly my fundamental right to say I do not permit some basic utility company to install a radio frequency device on my home that will give them access my private life, my private world and my private information.
4- This also applies to: any and all government agencies, corporations, companies, businesses and all other groups and organizations, etc. expecting to generate income off of any information gathered at or from my private property, my home and our family’s private lives.
It’s time BC Hydro became smart with their power and started listening to their customers.
It’s time BC Hydro became smart with their power and stopped bullying us and violating our Democratic rights.
It’s time BC Hydro got smart with their power before another home burns or somebody dies before the judges can rule.
January 16, 2015-
http://www.thevalleyvoice.ca/Voice%20Stories/january%202015/smart%20meter%20explosion%20causes%20house%20fire%20-%20january-16-2015.htm
July 21, 2015-
“FIRE WAS INVESTIGATED AND CAUSE FOUND TO BE AN ELECTRICAL FAILURE OF THE ELECTRICAL METER”.
http://www.cheknews.ca/devastating-house-fire-in-port-alberni-109731/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/418271884118250580/
I look forward to hearing back from you, Michael!
I have all the time in the world and as a member of the Coalition to Stop Smart Meters in BC, I never sleep.
Lori G
Mission
= = =
Dear Lori,
Thank you for your email regarding the safety of the batteries in our smart meters.
Since 2011 we have used Centron OpenWay meters manufactured by Itron to serve our residential customers. Just like pace makers, clocks and cameras, these meters contain lithium batteries. Lithium batteries are used in critical devices because they have a long life span.
Lithium batteries must meet the safety standards detailed in IEC 60086-4:2014 which, “specifies tests and requirements for primary lithium batteries to ensure their safe operation under intended use and reasonably foreseeable misuse.” These standards were set by the International Electrotechnical Commission, an international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. We have confirmed with our meter vendor that the batteries in use in our meters meet these standards.
There are 1.9 million smart meters in operation in British Columbia today, and they have proven to work safely and reliably in all conditions in their four years of use. Like all grid equipment, our meters pass strict safety testing before they are installed in the field.
Should you have further questions, please call us at 1 800 409 8199.
Sincerely,
Michael | Smart Metering Specialist, Smart Metering Program
BC Hydro
P 1-800-409-8199
___________________________________________________________________________
From: Mark (name included with author’s permission)
Date: Tue, January 19, 2016
Subject: BC’s smart meters
To: bob.mackin@me.com
Dear Mr. Mackin,
I want to thank you for writing this piece in the Province. You are one of the very first reporters to look into this issue, and raise some important questions about its economic, safety and health efficacy.
A couple of points I would raise:
1. Why are the replacement smart meters costing only $200? The original 1.9 million meters were costed at $550, the most expensive smart meter in North America.
- How can BC Hydro claim that their meters are more advanced than those used in Ontario? Virtually all makes of smart meters are very similar to each other, and have the same problems with potential danger to human (and other) health, fire safety, hackability, short lifespan, quickly becoming outdated, and invasive and unwarranted mining of personal data and behavior patterns.As has been their habit all along, BC Hydro continues to be disingenuous, misleading, and untransparent about this entire expensive program. I encourage you to persist in your investigations into the truth behind these meters, and exactly why they are so aggressively being foisted on nearly all of North America, all at the same time. There is much we have not been told, and it has been almost impossible to get answers, from either BC Hydro or our supposed regulator, the BCUC.With respect,
Mark de Bruijn
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” Thomas Jefferson.