SMART METERS NOT SO CLEVER FAULTY SYSTEMS POOR READINGS INACCURATE WORKING CUSTOMERS DATA PRIVACY EXPENSIVE RIP OFF WASTE OF TIME ELECTRICITY PRICES HOW MUCH IS IT COSTING ME YOU

S M A R T M E T E R S

NOT SO SMART METERS ROLL OUT CAUSING PROBLEMS INACCURATE READINGS, MANUAL INPUTS NECESSARY - DUMB WASTE OF TIME - COSTING CUSTOMERS TIME AND MONEY

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There is an abundance of clean, renewable, wind and solar energy that can produce green hydrogen and electricity to charge vehicle batteries, but there is no transport infrastructure to support rapid energy exchanges, refuel hydrogen vehicles and load level.

The idea for smart meters sounds good in principle, provided they work consistently to provide accurate results, so saving the need for anyone to read a meter, also showing your own consumption, and not storing personal customer information.

The problems started when customers had a solar array feeding back into the grid, who may then be charged for their own electricity. Or, when changing supplier. Then, things seem to go drastically awry, according to many media reports. And the meters stop working. Making them 'Dumb Meters.' Or, 'not so smart meters.'

The aim of smart grid management was also the objective. Presumably allowing switching of generators to areas with higher demand during peaks and troughs, though there is no need to invade the privacy of domestic hereditaments for that. Area load measurements are more than sufficient. And then there is the extra cost of installations and replacements, when the money invested in malfunctioning equipment may be better spent on energy storage systems and investing in renewables.

IMPORTANT: Please note that the SmartNet™ Service Station system is completely different, not invading homes at all. Where home and/or industrial supplies are not the subject, but rather vehicles and storage capacity for load levelling, such as to be able to stock/store sufficient energy for transport use. Again, with not a smart meter in sight, and no interface/invasion with/of domestic or industrial premises.

The arguments against privacy and reconstruction of patterns of use for purposes other than grid management, appear solid enough, and for sure, rogue traders might misuse your data. Or the data may be stolen. It is inevitable.

Electricity is the most convenient way of transmitting clean, alternative energy, from the point of origin (conversion from natural harvesting) to the end user. Electricity is linked to magnetism, a force that can be harnessed to attract or repel, and convert a generated or stored potential difference (such as in batteries) from electrons traveling in a metal conductor, to rotational or linear movement. This incredible property gives us electric motors and generators. We take it for granted, but it is a miracle of nature. We are living in the modern age of electricity. Where energy security is as yet, unsecured.

THE GUARDIAN 27 MARCH 2024 - NEW BLOW TO BRITISH SMART METER ROLL OUT AS NUMBER OF FAULTY MACHINES LEAPS TO 4M

Nearly 4m energy smart meters in homes and businesses are faulty, government figures have shown, in a further blow to the “troubled” rollout of the technology.

Data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero reported that, at the end of last year, 3.98m meters in Great Britain were not working properly.

The department had initially reported that there were only 2.7m faulty meters in June 2023 but the figure for June has now been revised up – to 4.31m – due to reporting errors from some suppliers.

Related: Energy bills: why are so many smart meters in Britain turning ‘dumb’?

The latest data has raised concerns that customers may have been overcharged on their gas and electricity bills, and has prompted the government to write to the industry regulator, Ofgem, urging action against energy providers who are not supporting customers and meeting legal obligations.

Smart meters are seen as an important part of the transition to net zero by allowing homeowners to more easily track their energy use and take steps to reduce consumption. They send real-time data on customer usage to suppliers remotely when in “smart mode”.

However, when they are not connected properly, customers have to rely on estimated bills, which is resulting in some paying too much for their energy.

A spokesperson for the industry body, Energy UK, said: “Technical problems can prevent some meters from operating in smart mode and while this can be for reasons outside their control, suppliers still have an obligation to replace them when this happens.”

It added that the best way to avoid inaccurate bills through estimated readings was to send manual meter readings until their supplier is able to fix the issue.

Last week Lord Callanan, minister for energy efficiency and green finance, wrote to Ofgem saying the number of faulty meters fell short of what the government expected to see, and urged the regulator to take action.

He added that the level of underperformance of some operators showed that legal requirements put in place to ensure meters operated in smart mode were not being universally followed.

Last year, the public accounts committee called on ministers to set out how they plan to convince the public to take up a smart meter more than a decade into the “troubled” rollout of the technology. About 60% of all domestic and business meters now smart.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “The vast majority of smart meters are working correctly.

“However, we are concerned that reporting errors by a minority of suppliers have uncovered more meters not operating in smart mode than previously thought.”

Smart Energy GB, a government-backed non-profit set up to help with the smart meter transition, said: “There are now almost 35m smart meters… in Great Britain and the vast majority are operating as intended.”

It added that there had been an overall improvement in the proportion of smart meters operating in smart mode since 2022, increasing from 87.3% at the end of 2022 to 88.6% at the end of 2023.

THE GUARDIAN 10 JUNE 2022 - SMART METERS ARE NOT JUST 'DUMB' BUT A SCANDALOUS WASTE OF MONEY

John Curtis, Ray Chalker and Andrew Pearson on the sheer frustration of having smart meters that don’t work.

Re your article (Energy bills: why are so many smart meters in Britain turning ‘dumb’?, 4 June), I am the manager of a residential estate in the North Downs in Surrey, an area notorious for erratic mobile coverage. From the outset this was a recognised problem with smart meters; boosters were attached, to no avail.

As the first of the smart meters were being installed, to great fanfare from the government, the engineers knew a second generation of meters was already being rolled out because the first did not remain smart if the supplier was changed – something the public were unaware of, since they were being exhorted to do just that by the government.

Things have gone steadily downhill since then. Smart meters are an absolute scandal – millions were spent, yet the majority here are now useless. We have to read almost all of them and are frequently required to provide dated photographs for all phases plus the total, on each meter – sometimes four photos for each reading – since the power companies don’t trust customers to provide accurate readings.

Another example of taxpayers’ money wasted on a government fantasy, with unproven technology rolled out nationwide with an almost entirely negative result. The money would have been better spent continuing to employ meter readers instead of devolving this increasingly irksome task to customers. John Curtis - Kingswood, Surrey

I was so pleased to read your article on the problems with smart meters and note that it’s not just me suffering from this shambles. I eagerly await my fourth visit from British Gas to un-dumb my meters. At present my “in-house display” clocks my gas consumption at £47,662.06 per hour – this being an improvement on the £1.5m it reached last month, with my electric meter recording a tariff of 34.935p per kWh (my contract states it is 19.783p per kWh).

I have requested that my old meters be put back in, but am told that I would have to pay for both the meters and the installation.

As a final flourish of sheer incompetence, I have just received an email congratulating me on “choosing to go smart”. They have missed out the most important bullet point. The one that says “Doesn’t work”. Ray Chalker - London

Those who wrote to Guardian Money are lucky, as at least they can read a meter. After EDF pressured me into having one installed in April, my gas meter has just been blank, which is apparently because the meter is more than 10m from the electric meter and because one is on the front of the bungalow and the other on the side, and there is a wall between them. So why did EDF go ahead and install them, and how do I check that the figures they say I have used are correct? Andrew Pearson - Clehonger, Herefordshire

[The only good use for a smart network, is to be sure customers are not being overcharged in relation to other service providers in other nations. Smart meters should tell customers in the UK how little end users in other nations all over the world are paying, and how much money is being given to shareholders, on the backs of the British public, who have been ripped off and sold down the river as disposable assets. But, they don't want you to know that rather more useful informaton: )]

THE GUARDIAN 4 JUNE 2022 - ENERGY BILLS: WHY ARE SO MANY SMART METERS IN BRITAIN TURNING 'DUMB' ?

Hundreds of readers tell of lost connectivity as official figures show millions of devices have to be read manually.

As energy prices spiral upwards, many households are eager to monitor their gas and electricity usage in real time – and, crucially, how much it is all costing them – with this feature one of the big attractions of smart meters.

Last month, Guardian Money published a letter from a reader whose Shell Energy smart meter stopped working just as the new higher energy price cap took effect in April, and we asked other readers to tell us whether they were also experiencing “a loss of smart-ness”.

The answer was a resounding yes. The hundreds of letters we received coincided with the publication last week of government figures that revealed millions of smart devices are being read manually.

Officials say there are now more than 28.8m smart and advanced meters in households and small businesses across Great Britain, but close to 3.6m are in what the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) calls “traditional mode”, potentially because the homeowner has switched to a supplier that is “currently unable to operate the meter in smart mode”, or there are network communication issues. However, BEIS says the number operating in traditional mode is falling.

We have looked into the issues readers raised about specific energy providers, as well as other questions about smart meters.

When will my smart meter become smart again?

The original letter to our Consumer Champions was about Shell Energy, and our request prompted lots more customers to write in. Jennifer, a Shell Energy customer whose meter also went dumb in March, spoke for many when she said the inability to monitor her usage, and therefore her spending, was a source of concern.

“I can’t instantly see how much a particular action – such as putting the heating on for an hour, or having the oven and grill on for 40 minutes – is costing me since the increase in energy prices,” she says. “It may be that I could afford to put the heating on more, or perhaps there are things I am doing which are costing a lot which I could cut down on … which is surely the whole point of a smart meter?”

Some Shell Energy customers say they were advised that their problem was due to the “unreliable signal” where their device was positioned, while others with problems say their meters stopped working when they were moved to the company from a failed supplier or when the price cap changed.

Shell Energy says: “As is the case across the industry, a small proportion of smart metering equipment can lose communication. Where the cause of the fault can be identified and is within our control, we work to resolve the issue as swiftly as possible. Where the issue is beyond our control, we work with our industry partners to try to address these.”

It adds: “We are not aware of any smart meter issues caused by customers moving to our system from failed suppliers, or by the change in the price cap. These events may reveal a symptom – that is, we find out there’s an issue because new tariff information isn’t showing on the IHD [in-home display], but these events are not a cause in themselves.”

The company also says that “when we talk about smart metering equipment not working properly, it is a communication issue and not a supply issue – the supply of electricity and gas to the property, billing and direct debits are all unaffected”.

Smart meters 2.0?

CS, an EDF Energy customer, reports that his smart meters had also stopped working, and says he was told his first generation, or SMETS1, meter was to blame. The same reason was apparently also given to some E.ON customers whose meters had malfunctioned.

SMETS1 stands for “smart metering equipment technical specification 1”, and these were the first wave of meters fitted in homes. The industry has now moved on to installing SMETS2 devices.

“I was not aware that smart meters needed upgrading and am slightly concerned that manual readings may inflate my bills versus smart meters in a period of sharp price increases,” CS says.

With more than 2.8m smart meters on its books, EDF says it had been fitting SMETS2 devices since late 2018. It added that at the outset of the smart rollout programme, all UK energy customers were fitted with SMETS1 meters, which lacked the ability to always operate effectively when a customer moved between suppliers.

The company says there is an industry-wide scheme known as enrolment and adoption (E&A), which is specific to SMETS1 meters and involves enrolling them in a new secure network. “This aims to give SMETS1 meters the same functionality as SMETS2 meters without the customer having to go through the inconvenience of another meter exchange. The majority of our SMETS1 customers have already successfully enrolled.”

The charity Citizens Advice has developed an online tool to help you check what type of smart meter you have, and to troubleshoot.

Gillian Cooper, its head of energy policy, says some of the early meters can lose their smart functionality when you switch. “This can happen, for example, if your supplier has collapsed and you’ve been moved to a new one,” she says. “If you haven’t changed energy suppliers and you’re having trouble with your smart meter, you should contact your energy company for support.”

MY SUPPLIER IS BLAMING THE DATA COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY. WHAT IS IT AND COULD IT BE ITS FAULT ?

The DCC is the “digital spine” that connects smart meters to energy suppliers and is the new network EDF is describing. The network is owned by Capita, and a number of readers, including customers of Shell Energy, E.ON and Octopus, say they were told their problem was an issue with the DCC.

Geoffrey Towne, one of several Octopus Energy customers who wrote to us, reports that both his meters went “dumb” on 16 March. When he reported the fault he was told: “In February a large volume of communication hubs have lost communication with us. This is a high-priority defect which is being investigated and dealt with by the DCC.”

Octopus tells Guardian Money that it is aware of a problem caused by a software bug that was affecting a specific type of meter. “The issue stems from a software bug in the firmware of the communications hub of this smart meter type, which leads to a loss in connectivity. However, this is not a big issue – it only affects about 1,000 of our smart meter customers,” the company says.

It adds: “We’ve been working with the DCC on this and developed a solution that doesn’t require a complete smart meter replacement. It will be rolled out to all our affected customers over the coming weeks.”

There are 11.8m SMETS2 and 8.7m SMETS1 meters on the DCC network. Millions of the first-generation meters had stopped sending automatic readings before being enrolled in the smart network and, as more of them are migrated on to it, some of the connection issues reported by readers should be resolved.

The migration is complex, and involves retrofitting more than 500 technology variants.

A DCC spokesperson says 20.5m meters are now on the smart meter network, and that the overwhelming majority are “operating as they should”.

They add: “As with any network of our scale and high growth, a small number of devices can experience temporary issues, which we resolve, working closely with energy suppliers and meter manufacturers.”

ARE SMART METERS A WASTE OF MONEY ?

The suggestion that they are not as smart as advertised – the current promotional push features Albert Einstein as a brand ambassador – has led some readers, such as Peter Holmes, to conclude the meters are a “waste of money”.

“I’ve had a problem with a smart meter since changing to Shell Energy,” he writes. “I’ve reported it twice but it still hasn’t been fixed. I had second generation smart meters installed by EDF, but when I switched to Green, the electricity meter stopped communicating, though the gas one was fine.”

However, when Holmes later switched to Shell, he says the gas meter restarted communicating but the electricity meter stopped again. “Personally I think smart meters are just a massive waste of money. Smart meters have had no impact on my energy usage whatsoever,” he writes.

Russell Wing, who says his smart meter has never worked, adds: “We have tried at least five times across multiple suppliers to get it working. On the plus side, it does have a nice display with a backlight, so it’s easier to take the readings.”

With smart meters that she says only worked properly for a short period of time, Ecotricity customer JN wonders whether the whole project is greenwashing and a way to shed staff.

“It certainly doesn’t save me any money as I’d kept a close eye on what I was using anyway, and I dread to think what scarce minerals are used in making the meters and gadgets,” she writes. “The arguments for installing them are greenwash in my view.”

The rollout of smart meters to 30m homes is forecast to be completed by 2025, and BEIS describes the replacement of traditional gas and electricity meters as an essential national infrastructure upgrade that would help make the country’s energy system “cheaper, cleaner and more reliable”.

A BEIS spokesperson says the rollout is “making good progress”, adding: “Customers who have a smart meter are more satisfied with their energy supplier overall, but we want all consumers to have the best possible experience and will continue to work closely with industry so that customers can fully benefit from smart services.”

The cost of the project is spread across everyone’s bills as part of the standing charge. Smart Energy GB, the government-backed campaign tasked with educating Britons on the merits of smart meters, says the devices gave consumers greater visibility and control over their energy bills.

“This is especially important in the current climate with so many households concerned about rising energy costs,” a Smart Energy GB spokesperson says.

“Having a smart meter also puts an end to manual readings and estimated bills, so consumers are only ever paying for energy they have actually used.”

The upgrade of the country’s energy infrastructure was the “most ambitious and complex our generation has seen”, they add. “The tech is vitally important for Britain to reach net zero. The accurate energy data that smart meters provide is helping to generate the right amount of power at the right time, reducing costly waste in the system and flattening peaks in demand.” [The problem with that argument, is that invasive data collection devices in homes are not necessary to regulate local demand. That argument is bogus. What the energy companies are after is planting the spyware in your homes, more Big Brother by the state. Spying on and controlling the electorate, in denial of the right to privacy. Then again, a lot of customer are pretty dumb, and don't mind being spied on. Mostly, falling for the propaganda blurb put out by executives and civil servants, looking to build their part.]

UTILITY DEEP DIVE 7 AUGUST 2013 - THE REAL REASONS FOR SMART METERS AND WHY UTILITIES NEED TO TELL THEIR CUSTOMERS

Smart meter skepticism has gone from talk to action as concerned residents and state regulators are challenging the value of smart meters in courts and regulatory hearings. Merwin Brown, co-director of the California Institute for Energy and Environment, says utilities’ poor communication with their customers is to blame: ″‘Hey you customer! You can’t understand this, but we’re doing this for your own good. We don’t know how to tell you why this is a must!’”

So why aren’t utilities communicating frankly with their customers about the real reasons for smart meters? Take a look below to see why poor communication is holding back true smart grid progress—and what utilities should be doing to explain the real reasons to customers.

BAD ENGAGEMENT IMPEDES SMART GRID PROGRESS

One example of the impact of poor communication is the smart meter roll-out in Maine.

In June, the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted to audit the smart meter program at Central Maine Power Co. (CMP), arguing that smart meters have cost customers millions of dollars without providing energy savings and benefits. In fact, the PUC flat-out denied CMP’s claim that customers will save a total of $25 million over the smart meters’ 20-year lifespan. Rather, the program will cost customers $80 million in rate hikes over that same period, according to the PUC. Even though 615,000 smart meters have been installed, very few customers actually used the smart meter data. The PUC’s hunch is that CMP failed to create and market valuable smart meter products and services. On top of that, the PUC has since been investigating smart meters after Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court sided with residents, who were concerned that regulators failed to ensure the delivery of “safe, reasonable and adequate” electricity service. Safe to say, CMP’s poor customer engagement resulted in increased scrutiny and a lack of trust from customers and regulators.

But this is not an isolated case. Poor communication and smart meter problems threaten to block smart grid progress. At least several U.S. states have either banned smart meters, considered legislation against them or allow customers to opt-out. After weighing the cost and benefits, Germany decided this month that the European Union’s recommendation that 80% of homes get smart meters would simply be too costly to consumers. Meanwhile, the anti-smart meter movement is taking root, especially as residents push back against utility claims that smart meters are completely safe. Just this July, British Columbia residents filed a class-action lawsuit against BC Hydro, citing smart meter’s potential effects on human health.

“If you took it at face value, the smart grid sounds like something the customer wants, asked for, is demanding, and will be excited about—like when the next iPhone is going to drop,” Merwin Brown says. “But that’s not the case.”

Over-promising smart meter benefits only undermines the smart grid, says Brown. Smart meter programs must be coupled with customer engagement initiatives to educate customers on the smart grid. After all, poor customer engagement only serves to worsen utilities’ reputations and increase customer dissatisfaction.

REAL PROGRESS WILL BE ACHIEVED THROUGH REAL TALK

Utilities seeking to have successful smart meter initiatives must meet with customers and have frank conversations about smart meters, Merwin Brown urges. The true benefits of smart meters are far more complex than the oft-touted energy and money savings. They are the key consumer-facing piece of utilities’ plans to contain the price of electricity, reconcile under-investment in the transmission system and improve reliability within limited operating margins. The recent rise of renewable energy and distributed generation resources only increases demand on smart technology to mitigate grid volatility.

It’s reasonable that utilities believe customers will never truly understand this. So far, only a handful of utilities, including the Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District (SMUD) and Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E), are effectively engaging customers on smart meters.

According to Brown, SMUD dispatched utility representatives to personally visit residents concerned about smart meters. With OG&E, utility executives saw the smart meter program as a customer engagement project, not just an infrastructure project. Roughly 44,000 OG&E customers are enrolled in SmartHours, a peak-time reduction program which helped the utility shed 72 MW of load by December 2012. Through its myOGEpower program, which uses a cloud-based web platform by Silver Spring Networks’ CustomerIQ technology, customers can view their electricity usage, bill estimates, monitory daily or hourly use and compare use over time. Customers also receive a weekly myOGEpower email summary reminding them to check their energy consumption. In a pilot program, customers with smart thermostats reduced peak demand by 57%.

The take-away here is that OG&E and SMUD realizing the importance of customer buy-in, something which will not only advance smart meter initiatives but also improve utility-customer relations. If utilities want to better their reputations, achieve smart grid progress and engage their customers, they have to do more than talk about it—they have to talk to the customer.

TRUE EMF SOLUTIONS 30 JANUARY 2012 - 12 REASONS TO SAY NO TO SMART METERS

Although this talks about Nevada, the same is true in every state. We must push for an Opt In option. This is the only option that gives us protection of the US Constitution. See Article “Opt Out is not a win!”

1- The people of Las Vegas were not asked nor was anybody told the facts about smart meters. NVE did a very low profile introduction campaign bringing the smart meters into the neighborhoods of Las Vegas very quickly and without prior installation orientation or allowing choices whether to receive them or not. On Jan 11, 2012 the PUCN issued an Interim Order for Docket #11-10007 instructing NVE to “enhance its customer outreach efforts and provide better training to is installation vendor, Scope Services and NVE employees within 10 days or face administrative fines pursuant to NRS 703.380

2- The contract DE-OE0000205 for the 138 million NVE received is both from the DOE (31 USC 6304) and DOD (10 USC 2358) department of defense. Even though public comments in the form of a properly arranged exhibit was accepted by the PUCN, no response to why the DOD is a part of this contract has been received by the public to date.

3- NVE admits the meters do emit RF (Radio Frequency) radiation but they only claim for 5 seconds a day maximum. Using an RF detection meter the RF 35C-W I found that they are emitting a much higher frequency of emissions and at least 5 times a minute. That is 7,200 times a day your DNA is being hit by blasts of RF emissions. As consumers we have a choice whether to use a hands free telephone, a microwave, a dish TV antenna or Wi-Fi in our homes or businesses. However, we do not have a choice when it comes to the smart meters and this is an invasion of privacy, creating a vulnerability to adverse hacking and exposing us to health risks that we can not protect ourselves against.

4- The National Toxicity report to see if these metes are even safe for humans will not be complete until 2014 and yet NVE has already installed 650, 000 of these meters in Southern Nevada and is implementing their rollout in northern Nevada even as I write this. FCC standards do not exist for chronic long-term exposure to EMF or from multiple sources, and reported adverse health effects from electromagnetic pollution include sleep disorders, irritability, short term memory loss, headaches, anxiety, nausea, DNA breaks, abnormal cell growth, cancer, early fatigue, etc. Because of untested technology, international scientists, environmental agencies, advocacy groups and doctors are calling for the use of caution in wireless technologies.

5- Concerns about the accuracy of smart meters have been raised nationwide, leading the Maryland Public Service Commission to deny permission on June 21, 2010 for the deployment of smart meters in that state. The state of Hawaii Public Utility commission also recently declined to adopt a smart grid system in that state. The CPUC currently has pending before it a petition from the City and County of San Francisco, and other municipalities, seeking to delay the implementation of smart meters until questions about their accuracy can be evaluated. There are 46 counties and cities in Ca that have placed a moratorium on the installation of smart meters until more research and accurate information about them can be obtained.

6 – NVE claims that smart meters will save money for NVE customers but in actuality will raise their monthly utility rate; some customers already reporting twice the amount of normal billing amounts. We know personally, 5 NVE customers whose utility bills were so high after smart meter replaced their old analog meter that they requested an immediate change out back to the analog meter. At the last PUCN workshop I personally witnessed one customer who was billed over $12,000 after his smart meter was installed.

7- Smart meters that monitor the ebb and flow of electrical usage into our homes discloses detailed information about private details of our daily lives. Energy usage data, measured moment by moment, allows the reconstruction of a household’s activities; when people wake up, when they come home, when they go on vacation, and even when they take a hot bath. Smart meters represent a new form of technology that relays detailed hitherto confidential information reflecting the times and amounts of the use of electrical power without adequately protecting that data from being accessed by unauthorized persons or entities and as such pose an unreasonable intrusion of utility customer’s privacy rights and security interests.

8-The Attorney Generals office BCP (Bureau of Consumer Protection) filed a docket 2 Years ago # 10-02009 (July 28th, 2010) that stated the smart meter was intrusive and violated the 4th amendment of the constitution the Nevada Constitution and obliterated a persons right to privacy. The BCP also filed 7 other concerns about the deployment of smart meters. They included: Technological risks, Deployment and customer acceptance risks, customer behavior study risks, cyber security risks, consumer protection, cost and budget risks and benefit risks.

9- The citizens of NV have not been told the truth about the meters. The PUCN has NOT protected its citizens by forcing NVE to tell the truth. It appears no due diligence was done on the impact in the health, welfare or economics of the smart meter roll out. The primary justification given for the smart meters program is the assertion that I will encourage customers to move some of their electricity usage from daytime to evening hours; however, NVE has conducted no actual pilot projects with smart meters to determine whether this assumption is in fact correct. Non-transmitting time-of day meters are already available for customers who desire them, and enhanced customer education is a viable non-technological alternative to encourage electricity use time shifting. These meters give total control of your electrical use to NVE so they can turn off our appliances (including heat and cooling) remotely without our permission at anytime. NVE wants to do this through Home Area Network (HAN) so they can implement time of use pricing and energy use behavior modification from consumers through a program call O-Power. Some engineers and energy conservation experts believe that the smart meters program—in totality—could well actually increase total electricity consumption and therefore the carbon footprint as well.

10- The FCC guidelines for RF emissions states that no one can have a device on there home that has more than one antenna. The Sensus smart meters deployed by NVE have 2 antennas and are a transmitting surveillance device. NVE has been exempt from the rule. FCC says that in order to transmit the two way communication of customer’s personal energy information, NVE must first obtain the customer’s written permission especially when it comes to the collection and possible resale of private information. NVE did not get anyone’s permission.

11- On December 28th in response to PUCN’s request NVE made 4 proposals for those customers who wished to “opt out” of the NVE smart meter program. Unfortunately, all of the options will cost the customer big bucks to keep their analog or non-transmitting meter. There will be an initial re-install fee of over $100 and an additional $15 monthly fee into perpetuity. Two of the options will either be an analog or digital non-transmitting meter and the other two options will still be collecting and transmitting our personal information. This needs to be an OPT IN situation for those who want the smart meter and those who don’t should be allowed to keep their old analog as the standard meter. NVE wants the PUCN to change rule 16 allowing the Smart Meter to be the standard. This would be disastrous for consumers from both an economic and personal privacy/security standpoint.

12 – These meters give total control of your electrical use to NVE – they can turn off your appliances including your heat and cooling remotely without your permission at anytime. NVE wants (HAN) Home area network so they can implement time of use pricing and implement . NVE wants behavior modification from consumers.

ELECTRICITY PRICES

Unfortunately, where SDG 7 of the United Nations' sustainability development goals, is to provide "clean affordable energy for all," electricity prices vary considerably from region to region based on local policies, profit ratios for shareholders, lack of investment in renewables, reliance on fossil fuels. And of course natural resources. The most important of all being hydro electricity for the fortunate few.

POWER COMPANIES A - Z

According to the 2018 Forbes calculation of net market capitalization, assets, sales and profit as the utilities with the financial muscle to develop innovative zero emission transportation and renewable energy load levelling solutions:

EDF Électricité de France SA

KEPCO Korean Electric Power Corporation

National Electric Grid & Central Electricity Authority (India)

National Energy Board (Canada)

National Grid plc (formerly Central Electricity Generating Board UK)
Scottish & Southern Energy

State Grid Corporation of China

TEPCO Tokyo Electric Power Company

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

If we want a practical EV infrastructure solution by 2050 starting within the next 10-15 years to meet the 2030 transition, to 2035 zero emission targets of most countries party to the Paris Accord, we need to make the most of electricity and our distribution networks for load levelling of renewable solar and wind generated electricity. But in the UK, other European countries, and in the USA, they are going backwards by doing nothing.

ELECTRICITY POWER COMPANIES A - Z

Duke Energy Corporation, DUK, N. Carolina, USA

Dominion Energy Inc., Richmond, Virginia