Sunday, July 19, 2015

What "Smart Meters" are really all about

"Smart meters" aren't about saving power; they're about government control. Witness the latest from Johannesburg, South Africa where authorities are pleading with residents "not to panic" when power is shut off to households that are consuming more than their fair share of electricity.

Load Limiting is a technology that enables City Power to accurately identify and ascertain household consumption in real time in relation to the available generating capacity.

The deployment of load limiting will enable City Power to remotely disconnect households that don’t comply with requests to reduce consumption, remotely using smart meters.

Households that have an excessive consumption would experience repetitive disconnections at five minute intervals for a period of 30 seconds until they have reduced their consumption to required levels.

Should they fail to abide by instructions to reduce consumption, non-compliant residents will be disconnected remotely via smart meters.

I would encourage every American to reject smart meters, no matter how tempting the incentive from your local power company.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.
 

7 comments:

Backwoods Engineer said...

Everytime I see an article like this, I cry for the ignorance of the American people. I'm an electronics (RF) engineer who has been designing "smart" electric, water, and gas meters since 1997.

They don't cut off your electricity unless you agree to it. It saves you money on your bill if you agree to it. It saves the power companies from having to start up expensive natural-gas generator plants during times of extremely high load, like hot summer days.

They're not going to spy on you. They're not there to take your Internets away.

The "smart" meters have less memory and processing power than the typical Chinese $50 Android tablet. They barely have enough network connectivity to transmit the information the power companies need to know when peak demand hits. When I was designing remote-read electric meters (a few years ago, I have since moved on to water meters), one reading every 15 - 30 minutes was all they could get. It isn't much faster these days, either, because the laws of physics haven't changed.

Please, please check with people who are knowledgeable before posting disinformation propoganda like this. I dislike what the Federal government monster has become as much as the next guy, but, an electric meter is just an electric meter.

Lunarman said...

Ok, then when I was living in Saint Marys county in Maryland, as a requirement to join the power coop ( the only provider of power in the area) you had to have both a Smart meter and a heat pump "switch". The purpose of the latter was to turn off said heat pump remotely during peak hours and high demands. The Smart meter may just be easy to read remotely, but it certainly isn't innocuous.

Lunarman said...

Ok, then when I was living in Saint Marys county in Maryland, as a requirement to join the power coop ( the only provider of power in the area) you had to have both a Smart meter and a heat pump "switch". The purpose of the latter was to turn off said heat pump remotely during peak hours and high demands. The Smart meter may just be easy to read remotely, but it certainly isn't innocuous.

directorblue said...

With all due respect, BE, a government that tells you what kind of light bulbs you're allowed to buy, that CO2 is a toxic substance, that the dominant source of energy in the U.S. is evil, and is led by radical sixties retreads with totalitarian instincts, well, you'll forgive me for doubting the stated reasons for Smart Meters.

Backwoods Engineer said...

"you had to have both a Smart meter and a heat pump "switch". The purpose of the latter was to turn off said heat pump remotely during peak hours and high demands. The Smart meter may just be easy to read remotely, but it certainly isn't innocuous."

I didn't mention the load switch because I didn't want to get bogged down in the technology, for those that don't get into that. But yes, the smart meter commands the load switch to turn the load off during peak demand. So what. YOU AGREED TO IT, or you wouldn't have a load switch installed at your home or business.

What, people can't agree to a contract with a company anymore?

This is all misdirected fear and loathing. Direct your ire at the Federal and state governments, whose tyranny is taking your rights away left and right.

Utility companies are just trying to survive, like everybody else. So are the companies that supply them. With the massive regulatory burden from state and federal governments, it's a wonder they can still keep your lights on.

Good grief. Maybe people would be happier if they had no electricity.

Anonymous said...

while makes Backwoods Engineer ... some valid points

the issue the always increasing abuse of gov't power

today it is too save money and power
tomorrow it becomes another tool of social justice

one can easily see the gov't using this to ration out
based on per capita basis

or even on a social impact concept
is it fair that some people get to use
more power than others
etc

Lisl said...

Correct me if I'm reading this wrong, but didn't he indicate he had no other option (except no electricity)? If the company that demands you be equipped with the technology is the only provider, then the "you agreed to it" isn't exactly persuasive.

What am I missing here?