The Dark Side to Smart Meters in San Francisco, California

By admin • January 26th, 2010

Admin Cheap Texas Electric Rates, January 26, 2010,  Updated 2/5/2010

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Smart Meters as a Collections Weapon
There are complaints flowing in California this week regarding the use of Smart Meters, and a huge increase of customers having their power shut off. Pacific Gas and Electric is at the center of this controversy. It seems that there was a recent government filing where PG& E predicted more customers who fall behind on their bill will have their power shut off once the company installs installs the Smart Meters throughout the territory.
Mark Toney, the executive director with The Utility Reform Network said that customers should have the right to refuse the Smart Meter installation in their homes. Customers have complained that their electric bills have soared since they were installed.
“Really, it’s our worst fears being realized, that PG& E sees these Smart Meters as a collections weapon to put pressure on people by being able to shut them off so easily,” said Toney.
Statewide 818,042 Californians were cut off from September 2008 to August 2009, an 8% increase. At the same time, PG& E customers were cut off at a rate of 40% to 298,020.
Public outcry over this has caused some change in procedures. PG& E customers now get two phone calls before a disconnect. In addition, if a customer misses a promise to pay date, he will get a second chance to make good.

This story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, 1/26/2010 on page D-1

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So what can we learn from this story? One thing that comes to mind is someone needs to start checking these Smart Meters for accuracy. I have seen many stories of folks complaining that their new meters are costing more to them each month on their bills that previous bills. After all, most of these Smart Meters are manufactured out of the United States, and we have seen recently that not all countries have as strict policies regarding quality and safety.
In manufacturing, especially in electronic devices you can have a very narrow tolerance for error, or a very wide one. We are at a time when companies are buying millions of units in many states. I am sure the manufacturers are doing everything they can to get as many units out to the buyers as possible. But who does care about the consumer? Anyone?
We need to have these devices tested. Maybe the Public Utility Commission of each state should take up this task. Or maybe the companies can see real value in setting the customers mind at ease on the reliability issue. Maybe before the utility company takes your old meter off, it should test it, to see if it was running on the low side of metering all this time, and the new meter is just accurate. that could explain what is happening.
Maybe these new meters should be randomly tested by disinterested third parties in other states as for efficiency and reliability? I think it will become painfully clear that there should be some oversight to installing millions of untested meters, on a population that is growing more and more leery of  them by the day. If they are flawed, just think of the problem of testing them, and installing new ones?

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Comments(2) Blog, Cities, Electricity

Comments

By admin on January 26th, 2010 at 4:44 am

Oh My Gosh,

I never thought that some of these Smart Meters could have problems correctly measuring electrical flow. Let’s test them now!

Marey

By Flexible Packaging Companies on January 29th, 2010 at 6:57 am

Thank you for all the great posts from last year! I look forward to reading your blog, because they are always full of information that I can put to use. Thank you again, and God bless you in 2010.

 

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