Dallas residents have been up in arms over the new "smart meters" installed in their backyards.
Digital smart meters, which can monitor electric, natural gas, and water usage, allow utility companies to remotely read usage levels and control the delivery of services.
Many claim their monthly electric bills have spiked to outrageous levels since being installed. Some have held meetings, set up websites and blogs, started petitions and confronted installers, refusing to allow them to switch out the meters at their homes.
This isn't anti-technology Luddism, this is legitimate concern.
A smart meter will maximize energy efficiency and monitor
everyone's private lives inside their private homes.
(AP photo/Pat Sullivan)
More government intrusions
Wired recently ran an article, "Security Pros Question Deployment of Smart Meters," which is concerned with the fact that the whole "smart grid" is being deployed nationwide before security guidelines have even been developed.
"The most common vulnerability," says the article, is "cross-site request forgery" in which a hacker can hijack an authentication cookie stored in a user’s browser and obtain access to the system as that user. Encryption schemes, it seems, are lagging behind advances in encryption cracking.
Add to that the fact that smart meters have a remote shut-off capability and you can see the potential for mayhem.
But libertarians see much greater potential for misuse and abuse.
Already, enviro-manipulators are counting the days until everyone's energy usage – electricity, gas, water – can be monitored and posted on a public website where every neighbor can monitor everyone else's usage.
An article in Grist, "Smart meters save energy, water, and dollars," describes a pilot program in which smart water meters take hourly readings and participants can check each other's consumption on a social networking site. Then the author adds, "Nothing like a little peer pressure to get you to turn off the tap."
Yes, imagine your nosy neighbor seeing the spike in your water usage chart whenever you water your plants, make ice cubes, or flush your commode when you get up to pee at two AM every night.
Why not just hand them binoculars?
But given the history of ever-escalating government intrusion into our private lives, libertarians warn it won't be long before that "peer pressure" evolves into "mandatory compliance."
We can all look forward to visits from the Energy Compliance Cops knocking on our doors with warnings and fines and subpoenas and arrest warrants and, inevitably, SWAT cops with battering rams and deadly weapons.
That's not paranoia, that's tomorrow's reality. Ask any peaceful pot smoker.
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Comments
The more complicated the technology, the more likely it is to crash.
I also wonder if this could be hijacked by government in order to withhold services from people they wish to punish. Nothing like a little rationing to make uncooperative people "see the light".
Another good reason or two to wean yourself from the grid.
We know access to better information - real time information can make a huge difference in a households electric bills. There are many academic, utility sponsored and manufacturer sponsored research studies and the general conclusion is just better information alone can reduce consumption by 5-15%. For a family spending $100 - $250 per month on electricity that’s a big deal.
The utilities will bring solutions to the market, but there are proven energy monitoring options on the market today. For as little as $100 families could gain access to this real time information and take control of this important issue.
We have been in the business of real time electricity information since 2003 and it’s gratifying to see this momentum. Visit us at www.bluelineinnovations.com for more information.
Let's not get all twisted out of shape about meters.
Sheesh, you'd think we were facing Hitler or something.
Get real.
In 1930s Germany, Common Sense people without the ability to see current trends right under their noses and then project the consequences of those trends into the future probably said, "Let's not get all twisted out of shape about Hitler. Sheesh, you'd think we were facing a Second World War or something. Get real."
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