Smart Meters Coming
to a Neighborhood Near You!
“By anyone’s assessment, traditional electromechanical [analog] meters are an amazing piece of engineering work. Refined over a hundred years, the design of a standard residential electricity meter became an impressive combination of economy, accuracy, durability and simplicity.”
– Electric Power Research Institute
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A program is now underway in Jefferson County to replace existing utility meters with two-way communicating Smart meters.
You have a choice, though. Because of an Opt-Out Policy created several years ago, PUD customers can reject a Smart meter and opt for a non-transmitting analog meter instead.
According to the “Grid Modernization – Meter Replacement Process” page on JeffPUD’s website:
Utility-wide replacement of aging meters with new advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) [Smart meters] will begin on September 19th in Kala Point. Meter replacement will be done in zones over time, with full replacement projected by early-2024.
General Manager Kevin Streett reported at the PUD regular meeting on Sept. 6th that the ‘Gateways’ — a system-critical piece of hardware used for data relay between the consumer and the utility — are in short supply, thus are being rationed by the manufacturers. The speed of the county-wide rollout to 20,000 customer/owners will depend upon that supply chain, and that of the so-called Smart meters themselves.
If you know you do not want a Smart meter, you don’t have to wait until you are notified of the rollout reaching you. You can request an analog meter at any time using the PUD’s “RF Transmitting Meter Opt-Out Application” (see below).
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How We Got Here
In 2017, AMI technology, more commonly known as Smart meters, was rejected by more than a thousand county utility customers on a petition titled “We Want Analogs. No Smart Meters.” Over the course of two years, a group called SMOG — Smart Meter Objectors Group — challenged the PUD’s intended Smart meter rollout.
In response to concerns put forward by SMOG, in 2018 the meter replacement plan was put on pause. In November of 2019 and 1,000 signatures later, PUD commissioners granted utility customers the choice of opting for a non-transmitting analog meter, then or at any time in the future. Since that time about 175 customer-owners have requested that their existing one-way transmitting meters known as AMR — Automatic Meter Reading, not AMI/Smart meters — be replaced with analogs.
Now that the commissioners have decided to move forward with the AMI “Grid Modernization”, unless you opt out, your one-way transmitting AMR meter will be replaced with what many critics consider a far-more problematic two-way transmitting Smart meter.
One of approximately 40 Smart meters installed to date by Jefferson County PUD. The county-wide rollout begins Sept. 19th.
The authors are two of SMOG’s co-founders (Annette continues to monitor and participate in PUD meetings), and are among the early opt-outs. This article will describe the concerns around Smart meters and why you might want to opt for an analog when the meter replacement program comes to your neighborhood.
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Utility companies love Smart meters,
but are they better for the customers?
2017 SMOG information sheet
There are multiple issues with Smart meter technology that SMOG initially addressed:
- High costs for new infrastructure to support this technology that generally leads to utility rate hikes;
- Short meter lifespan, with frequent meter replacement adding to utility costs;
- Safety issues – the meters’ lack of grounding potentially causing house fires and the shorting out of household appliances;
- Questions about smart meter accuracy, affecting utility bills;
- The potential surveillance by Smart technology, gathering information on household habits;
- Control of meters remotely by the utility;
- Time-of-Use rate adjustments increasing utility bills;
- Health concerns resulting from the electromagnetic radiation emitted by Smart meters.
We won’t dwell on the first four concerns for the following reasons:
1) JeffPUD has already decided to go down this road, with a workplan budget of $4,060,000 for this 2+ year project. Cost overruns can be in the millions with these rollouts, particularly additional infrastructure expenses where there are terrain issues like we have in Jefferson County. Time will tell how this affects our rates.
2) If the Smart meter obsolescence figure of 5-7 years given in Congressional testimony in 2015 holds true, with costs shared among the PUD’s customer base, even those who opt out will see rate increases if their Smart-metered neighbors require more frequent replacements.
3) The incidence of fires following smart meter installations was alarming in the early rollout years, but not much news has surfaced the past few years. It remains one reason to choose an analog, though, if you want the safest possible tech on your property.
4) A 2017 study showed that Smart meters gave false readings from 30% too low to 582% too high. That could mean you pay more or less than your actual usage. We just don’t know. We do know that analog meters have stood the test of time, holding their accuracy within industry standards for decades.
The issues we can clearly address by opting out of a Smart meter at this point include:
Invasion of Privacy,
Surveillance and Data Collecting
A major difference between two-way Smart meter technology and our current one-way-transmitting meters is in their ability to communicate detailed data wirelessly to our utility.
An analog meter does not broadcast any frequencies at all, it is read manually on-site by a meter reader.
Our current one-way meters broadcast infrequently, sending overall energy usage to a collector, recorded by a meter reader in the field.
A Smart meter broadcasts RF frequencies 24/7, every few seconds or even faster, up to 190,000 bursts of pulsed radiation per day.
While our PUD has not added this feature to the AMI meters being purchased, one of the promises of Smart technology is its potential to not only broadcast our usage remotely to the utility, but to communicate with any Smart gadget or device — appliances, heating and cooling systems, lights, video doorbells, security cameras, door locks, an ever-expanding array of Smart tech — and send detailed information to our utility about how and when we use energy.
That is seen as a benefit by some, potentially offering the customer more specific data on their power consumption to encourage better energy habits. But that doesn’t play out in real life. As studies like this one from Keele University show, Smart Meters Have Little Impact on People’s Energy Usage Habits.
What detailed data collection does achieve is in-home surveillance, sending personal information to the “Cloud” that potentially allows your utility — or a hacker — to monitor your household’s private habits in real time. It can reveal when you are home or not, when and how much you use specific appliances, in some cases even your TV viewing habits. It’s been dubbed “the household device that spies on you 24/7.”
The data collected can be sold to third parties. Miles Keogh, Director of Research at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, warns, “I think the [smart meter] data is going to be worth a lot more than the [electricity] commodity that’s being consumed to collect the data.”
As previously stated, this information will not be available with these new Smart meters — the PUD has assured us that it is not their intent to carry out this kind of data-mining on us, or to sell it for profit. It will require an upgrade for that capability.
It is, however, a slippery slope. We take the PUD’s current management at their word, but once this technology is in place, it opens a Pandora’s box for future abuse.
Remote Disconnects, Control and
Rationing of Your Energy Use
One of the upsides for the utility in switching over to a Smart meter network is the remote disconnect feature. If the PUD needs or wants to turn off your power, no one has to physically come to your property; your service can be disconnected remotely by the utility.
This feature is prominently displayed on the new Vision Smart meters.
And with additional hardware installed, there is also the potential for the PUD to control your power use in other ways. For example, as 22,000 utility customers in Colorado were recently shocked to discover, thermostat settings can be overridden remotely. During a heat wave just weeks ago, we saw the headline Power Company Seizes Control Of Thermostats In Colorado During Heatwave.
“After temperatures soared past 90 degrees, residents were left confused when they tried to adjust their air conditioning and found locked controls displaying a message that said ‘energy emergency’.” Utility customers discovered that their thermostats were locked in at 78 or 79 degrees. Those with heat-related health issues were unable to adjust for their comfort level; temperature regulation was completely out of their control.
Again, this is not something that will be possible with the initial Smart meter rollout in Jefferson County. But the infrastructure will be in place for increasing control and energy rationing by our utility in the future.
Current Billing Structure
and Proposed Time-of-Use Rates
At present, we are charged a flat fee (base rate) for the privilege of connection to the electric grid, and a kilowatt-per-hour usage fee (you’ll easily find these on your power bill).
It’s elementary that there are typical peak times in most households when far more energy is consumed — most commonly between 4pm and 9pm — when families get home from work and school and prepare dinner, turn on lights, televisions, computers, EV chargers, appliances etc. Power generators charge more to utilities when these peaks stress their systems.
Time-of-use billing aims to pass most of those cost increases directly on to the consumer in order to nudge them to modify their usage behavior by shifting much of their consumption to the shoulder lower-peak hours, or better yet, midnight-to-6am off-peak hours. (Some of us have been doing this voluntarily for years or even decades.)
Sounds reasonable enough, but there are caveats. What about people who are disabled, at home all day with elderly parents or small children, or underemployed and constantly juggling jobs?
A study published in Nature Energy in December 2019, titled “Varied Health and Financial Impacts of Time-of-Use Energy Rates Across Sociodemographic Groups Raise Equity Concerns,” summarized their findings in this way:
“The elderly and those with disabilities face greater increases in electricity bills and worse health outcomes under some time-of-use electricity rates. This suggests that vulnerable groups should be considered separately in time-of-use rate design, and future rate designs should be tested to ensure that they do not increase hardship.”
The paper pointed to typical hardships in lower income, rural counties like ours — inefficient appliances, leaky homes and the prevalence of rentals rather than home-ownership — which effectively prohibit the consumer from improving their comfort through increased energy efficiency. This can contribute to negative health outcomes for those who are forced to suffer through cold winters, hot summers and higher overall bills.
What I can’t see can’t hurt me.
Right?
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this technology relates to the health impacts from the high-intensity pulsed radiation (RF transmissions) that Smart meters emit. Many decades of research have established that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can cause profound health issues.
When Smart meters first began rolling out in the U.S., the incidence of people reporting new health challenges spiked dramatically. Former Silicon Valley engineer Jeromy Johnson is one who experienced a decline so debilitating after a Smart meter was installed that he turned EMF educator. Within a week of its installation, the meter’s impacts changed him from an early-adopter tech enthusiast to someone unable to function in his normal work and home environments.
As described in Johnson’s acclaimed 16-minute TED Talk (with thousands of corroborating comments), the most common adverse health effects linked to EMF exposures from these meters include:
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- Headaches
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Tinnitus
- Heart arrhythmia/palpitations
- Decreased immune function
- Irritability
- Decreased cognitive function
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Estimates of those who suffer from electrosensitivity range from 3 to 10 percent of the population. This concern was a major reason our PUD commissioners agreed to create an Opt-Out Policy. A future article will explore this issue in more depth.
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Why Choose an Analog Meter?
Two styles of analog meters our PUD is using for opt-outs — the original “clock face” style that records usage on small dials and a later style with a numerical display.
Local craftsman and contractor, Sebastian (Seb) Eggert, is nearing completion of his ElectroMagnetic Radiation Specialist (EMRS) certification with the Building Biology Institute and was a founding member of SMOG. He is the host of a semi-monthly Zoom call with other working EMRS professionals in which they discuss their cases and host guests, among them many of the most well known leaders in the field. He is hired by business and home owners to ‘survey’ offices and domiciles for the unseen presence of electrical, magnetic and radio frequency radiation (RF) as well as high frequency voltage transients emitted by wiring, known as dirty electricity (DE). He shares this primer, beginning with the beauty of analog technology:
“Electromechanical (analog) meters were the mainstay of the national electrical system for more than a hundred years. The amount of electricity used is indicated on a series of small dials or a digital display. The electrical current moving through the device constantly turns the mechanism in proportion to the amount of electricity consumed. A miniscule amount of friction in the system is the only loss of energy in the device.
If calibrated properly they are highly accurate and have been known to run reliably for as many as fifty years. They produce no other nuisance radiation of any kind, other than that created by the electricity in and moving through the wires.”
Traditional analog meters are safer, less expensive, more reliable, longer lasting and more secure than wireless Smart meters. With an analog meter there is zero chance for Smart surveillance, no possibility of the utility remotely disconnecting or controlling your energy use, no way to impose Time-of-Use rate structures, and no harmful radiation or dirty electricity is ever generated.
Unfortunately, manufacturing of new analog meters came to an end as industry’s push for ‘smart grid’ technology was prioritized. However, even according to Randy Austin, CEO of Vision Meters (our new supplier), refurbished analogs operate reliably and within industry standards for 25-35 years.
Non-transmitting Analog
or Non-transmitting Digital?
Our PUD also offers a second type of non-radiating meter as part of its opt-out program: digital non-transmitting meters. Eggert explains:
“These meters look like the new two-way transmitting [Smart] meters but do not have radio transmitters or receivers, thus — like analog meters — have to be read monthly by a meter reader. The switch mode power supply that measures the electricity used and displays it on the meter does generate some high frequency voltage transients, also known as ‘dirty electricity’, or ‘DE’. This is considered objectionable current by the building biology community and some electrically sensitive people are negatively affected by this form of radio frequency radiation.
The digital non-transmitting meters average the current used by sampling the amperage moving through the device over time and taking an average of those readings. Some engineers suggest that spikes from power surges (such as when a refrigerator starts up) can skew the average to be higher than what the usage is, resulting in higher electricity bills.”
Analog meters do not use this kind of averaging which can inflate your utility bills, nor do they generate dirty electricity — more reasons they are the superior meter choice.
Analog advocate Jeromy Johnson says, “I encourage you to do everything possible to opt-out of your Smart meter.” And with our hard-won Opt-Out Policy in place, we have that choice in Jefferson County.
Sign Up for Your Analog
Opt-Out Meter
If you want an analog meter for any or all of the above reasons, we are happy to report that our PUD has made it an easy process with a simple one-page opt-out form.
Opt-Out Application is on the last page of the packet here.
Our utility is offering non-transmitting analog meters for no initial installation charge and only a $5.00 monthly fee added to the power bill. The $5 surcharge goes towards the cost of a meter reader coming to your property every month to manually read your power usage.
Some caveats apply. From the PUD’s website:
Net metering (solar power) customers are limited to the [non-transmitting] digital meter, and must pay a $75 installation fee.
PUD customers who rent their homes will need to have their Opt-Out applications signed by the property owner in order for the application to be processed.
You’ll find the AMI/Smart meter opt-out form here. It cannot be filled out online, rather must be downloaded and printed out, or picked up at the customer service counter at 310 Four Corners Road.
Except for a point of confusion over whether to choose the non-transmitting analog or non-transmitting digital, we’ve not heard of any snags from others who have already opted out. We strongly suggest the analog option as the safest, most robust meter available.
Analog meters are available for most customers, but our PUD states that only the non-transmitting digital option will work with solar systems.
We will be happy to answer questions in the comments below.
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Top photo from PUD website