Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Smart Meter Cost

I devoted four chapters to Smart Meters in my book, “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” showing the deleterious effects they have on humans in terms of health, privacy, fires, higher electricity costs, and how other states and countries have dealt with the forced installation.
http://www.amazon.com/U-N-Agenda-21-Environmental-ebook/dp/B009WC6JXO/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369076205&sr=1-1&keywords=UN+Agenda+21%3A+Environmental+Piracy

Last time I wrote about U.N. Agenda 21 was on January 29 this year when the Smart Meter bill, SB 797, introduced in the Virginia Senate by Senator Thomas A. Garrett, was tabled indefinitely, a polite way of saying, the bill had no chance of passing.

This bill would have prohibited any utility company from installing an advanced metering system (Smart Meter) on private property or requiring the installation of one unless the customer requested it. If the utility had already installed a Smart Meter, they would have been required to replace it with an analog meter if the customer demanded it. If the customer refused the advanced meter (Smart Meter), the utility company would not have been allowed to charge a penalty or a higher rate.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/52752

Recently, Dominion Power in Virginia has changed its policy on Smart Meters somewhat. http://southsidevirginiateapartypatriots.com/?p=772
“The Non-Communicating meters are Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or Smart Meters with both the two-way communications and data storage features disabled, the only recording features retained are the minimum needed for monthly billing. Because the Non-Communicating Meters’ remote communication abilities have been disabled, a Company representative will manually read the meter. For the Interim Non-Communicating Meter Option, the Company will not assess a separate charge to install and use a Non-Communicating Meter. The Company plans to propose a charge for the Non-Communicating Meter Option, which will be subject to approval by the State Corporation Commission of Virginia.”

Smart Meters are replacing globally the traditional meters for electricity, gas, and water. http://www.fwrj.com/techarticles/0811%20tech1.pdf
They are installed in developed nations around the globe as part of the effort to replace the old patchwork grid with the Smart Grid. Why this intense rush to modernize? Smart Meters are supposed to save consumers money but, many disgruntled citizens filed a class-action law suit in California, claiming that their bills have increased many fold and consumption readings are inaccurate. It is arguable that the grid represents progress in delivery or that it improves the quality of life. During major storms, those on the smart grid lost power, while those on old patchwork systems with cables buried underground kept their power on.

The Smart Meter is a propaganda device to benefit utility companies, the electronic industry, and the global government. Sold as an electricity-, money-, and earth-saving device, smart meters cost hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies and utility companies money, costs that are passed on to hapless consumers in the form of higher energy prices. Utilities are monopolies and as such, the interests of consumers are not a priority. The cost of the new Smart Grid will be passed on to consumers as well.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the average consumer would save $80-$180 per year once the grid is completed. The Department of Energy claims 15% reduction in annual energy consumption in areas where smart meters were installed.

“Variable pricing” and “differentiated pricing” schemes will be adopted, based on “off-peak” hours when power demands are lower. When power demand is higher, customers will find themselves voluntarily and involuntarily sweltering or freezing, as power will be cut off from a remote location in order to reduce the high cost of additional power generation and storage that utilities would incur.

Rob States, engineer and expert, explained that changing power use from peak to off-peak would only save $40 per year, yet a Smart Meter installation cost $500. Adopting “differentiated pricing” schemes would only save customers money after 12 years when the Smart Meter is paid off.

The Public Utilities in Nevada told a newspaper that “Smart Meters would only slow the rate of increase of energy prices paid by consumers.”

Because Smart Meters operate like a cell phone, they can connect to any type of wireless devices with a built-in Wi-Fi capacity such as washing machines, computers, ovens, TVs, stereos, gym equipment, medical devices, or any other appliance. Such an interactive system is called HAN (Home-Area Network). It is conceivable that in the next five years all new appliances could have RF capability.

A HAN can be connected to a home energy management system that can program anything to turn on or turn off based on total energy consumption and pricing schemes. GE, at the forefront of this helpful technology/invasion of privacy/spying/snooping developed Nucleus for its Brillion line of appliances that can be connected to a HAN.

Utilities can sell your home’s data to a third party and any potential hackers can capture the same with a hand-held device in the race for profits or other nefarious uses. The “complex skilled labor” needed to secure the Smart Grid from hackers and staying ahead will cost additional tens of billions of dollars, passed on to consumers in higher electric bills.

Adding insult to injury, FCC, a non-medical organization set limits of acceptable RF exposure back in 1992 and has not modified them since then in spite of the medical research developed in the last ten years alone.

The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) was approved by Congress on December 18, 2007 and signed into law the next day. Title XIII in EISA gave full power to the Department of Energy to legislate, advise, administer, and support the modernization of our country’s electrical grid. By 2010, $16 billion had been spent worldwide to install smart meters. In the next twenty years, it is estimated that $2 trillion will be spent worldwide on smart grid technology. Our government has subsidized utilities so far with at least $10 billion to interface power plants, substations, transformers, transmission lines, and home wiring. The Obama administration provided $1 billion in matching funds in the 2009 stimulus bill. More than twenty million smart meters have been installed in the U.S. so far. http://www.w4ar.com/SmartMetersReport.pdf

Utilities are more than eager to install smart meters because they become the recipients of Smart Grid grants and generous tax breaks. Additionally, the digital meters will no longer require meter readers, saving labor and transportation costs.

Three entities have jurisdiction over the Smart Grid - the Department of Energy, the Federal Communications Commission, and state public utility commissions.  None of these three groups was tasked with privacy, security, and hacking issues.

“According to George W. Arnold, the National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), there are over twenty different organizations currently working on developing acceptable technological standards for Smart Grid applications.” Grids all over the world will eventually be interfaced. Homeland Security and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) have also introduced bills to centralize policy management with their departments. (Smart Meters Report)

Health issues associated with Smart Meters include chest pain, headaches, migraines, insomnia, sleep disruption, vertigo, fainting, memory loss, lack of concentration, chronic fatigue, nausea, anxiety, tinnitus, skin tingling, heavy breathing, hypersensitivity, and hot skin.

According to the Smart Meters Report, the visual equivalent of Smart Meters is strobe lights which can cause seizures at pulse rates above ten per second, a rate frequently surpassed by Smart Meters. Strobe lights can be turned off while Smart Meters transmit non-stop 24/7.

Utility customers with Smart Meters have become lab rats in an ongoing medical experiment.

On August 31, 2007, The Bioinitiative Report: A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields was published.  Breast cancer, leukemia, other cancers, neurological disorders, immune system dysfunction, DNA modification, electrical heart palpitation were associated with RF. The World Health Organization classified RF emissions in 2011 as a Class 2B carcinogen.

A conference of international experts gathered in Seletun, Norway to discuss the biological effects of ELF and RF on humans from wireless communications and electric power technology.  Seven scientists published the “Seletun Scientific Statement” in the medical journal, Reviews on Environmental Health in 2010, supporting the findings of the Bioinitiative Report, calling on global defense from EMF pollution. http://sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/?page_id=382

How expensive and accurate are the old meters? The general manager for a rural electric co-op covering five counties explained to me that contract meter readers on foot get paid approximately 80 cents to read an old, traditional meter, for a total of $10 per year. And they are using their own cars and gas. We can assume less cost in urban areas due to the proximity of meters. “Electromechanical meters installed in the late 1940s are still functioning and are accurate. Most have zero maintenance. Power companies are selling electromechanical meters for $2 each, which are nearly new, because they are surplus equipment to the power companies switching to smart meters.”

On the other hand, the average life of a smart meter is about 10 years or less due to baking in the sun, exposure to the elements and to the overheating of the meter itself. The electronic displays are the most common part to fail. A laptop computer can read the count sometimes; otherwise the reading is estimated in order to preset it on the replaced meter. The cheapest smart meter cost $135 per unit, plus the installation cost of at least $30 per hour, a car, electrical training, equipment training and other materials, pension, and healthcare benefits.

How expensive is to read a smart meter? “It depends on the cost of the radios, data plans, computer data centers, and antennas. A smart meter can be read through a carrier signal sent up and down power lines. However, many of the power company’s very expensive capacitor banks will have to be replaced (hundred thousand each) to allow the carrier signals to go down the power lines.  Most smart meters will be read by a cell phone type radio built into the meter.”

Most recently, Stop Smart Meters UK gave a presentation to the British MP and the UK government made the announcement on May 10, 2013 that “smart meter installations throughout the country will be delayed by more than a year.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dVoJ6fgwRdU&list=PLmW2ABZNt38PaGRSgDvJNmH9D_aJVt2yr

Dr. Liz Evans explained the negative health effects and spoke about the existence of hundreds of studies showing "evidence of harm could be acute", including possible "chronic effects from long term exposure such as cancer, infertility, dementia, genetic damage, immune system dysfunction and damage to fetuses. IT systems engineer, Mike Mitcham, added newly uncovered information about the dangers of hacking vulnerabilities and privacy violations caused by the new meters installations.”
http://takebackyourpower.net/british-mps-told-of-smart-meter-risks-uk-rollout-delayed-by-year)

The global cabal has decided that we need the Smart Grid and the huge profits derived from the installation of Smart Meters, regardless of the economic, privacy, and health costs. The powerful environmentalists have an even more “compelling” excuse to cut off our electricity consumption – we must save the planet at all costs from human destruction brought on by the “evil” capitalism.

NOTE
An extensive reading list, compiled by the Smart Meters Report, can be found at the following website on page 45. 
http://www.w4ar.com/SmartMetersReport.pdf

Here are some links I picked: 
http://www.zomepower.com/2012/01/smart-grid-investments-to-total-155b-annually-by-2018/
http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1688-Smart+Grid+Spending+Will+Top+%2445+Billion+by+2015
http://205.254.135.7/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=108&t=3
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/obama-announces-stimulus-funding-for-the-smart-grid.ars
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/08/10/chinas-smart-meter-boom-will-lead-1b-installations-2020
http://www.daggerpress.com/2012/03/16/del-glass-smart-meters-are-about-utility-corporations- makingmore-money-and-the-citizens-of-maryland-paying-more-for-electricity-and-losing-their-privacy/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124050416142448555.html
http://nevadanewsandviews.com/archives/15479
http://electricsense.com/1256/smart-meters-electromagnetic-radiation-money-and-your-health/
http://www.environmental-expert.com/news/do-smart-meters-really-change-energy-use-254972
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/new-smart-meters-energy-use-put-privacy
http://stopsmartmeters.org/frequently-asked-questions/
http://energy.aol.com/2011/08/05/smart-grid-privacy-and-security-risks-loom-for-agencies/
http://stopsmartmeters.org/2012/03/09/a-primer-on-the-fcc-guidelines-for-the-smart-meter-age/
http://sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/?page_id=188
http://stopsmartmeters.org/frequently-asked-questions/radio-frequency-radiation-issues/
http://betanews.com/2011/05/31/mobile-phones-are-as-cancerous-as-hpv-engine-exhaust-says-who/
http://www.bioinitiative.org/freeaccess/report/docs/report.pdf
http://www.committeetobridgethegap.org/pdf/110212_RFrad_comments.pdf
http://www.emfbioeffects.org/report.html
http://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/pdf/env_health_projects/electromagnetic_fields/e-reflex.pdf
http://www.weepinitiative.org/talkingtoyourdoctor.pdf
http://www.dirtyelectricity.ca/electrical_hypersensitivity.htm
http://www.skepdic.com/electrosensitives.html
http://smartmeterhelp.com/HealthSymptoms.cfm
http://electromagnetichealth.org/electromagnetic-health-blog/the-seletun-statement/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57369888/pg-e-can-charge-customers-to-nix-smartmeters/
http://www.lvrj.com/business/nevada-puc-approves-smart-meter-opt-out-plan-140941433.html
http://www.lessemf.com/faq-shie.html#smart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJzBeUeXb0Q

 

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