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Be skeptical of new “smart meters”
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Photo Jon Fletcher
Last week, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) announced their plans to install 620,000 “smart meters” over the next two years in order to upgrade the aging electrical system in the Sacramento Area.
“Instead of today's ‘dumb’ odometer-style counters, the devices will be brainy hubs in a new electrical nervous system that promises to save money and power and foster the next tech boom,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
The renovations are being spun as positives for the utility’s customers, no more monthly visits from the meter reader and quicker repairs are both becoming popular sales pitches for the new “smart meters.” “A home's power usage will be beamed straight to the utility, eliminating the meter-reader's monthly visit. If your power goes out, the meter will tell SMUD instantly (now, the utility usually learns of outages when customers call),” the Bee further reports.
While technological innovation almost always means that consumers of a particular product or service will benefit, there are several problems with these electrical grid renovations that should concern everyone.
The first is the potential threat to personal freedom.
Not only can these new meters report power outages and energy consumption back to the utility instantly, they can potentially adjust that consumption to a more responsible and environmentally friendly level. “[T]hermostats [and] appliances […] will be able to send and receive signals from the utility via the meter. Ultimately – with customers' consent – SMUD may be able to order hundreds of thousands of air conditioners and other appliances to adjust their power demand to relieve strain on the grid.”
Although restrictions on energy consumption remain voluntary at the moment, they will be legal mandates soon if the environmentalists and do-gooder politicians in Sacramento get their way. After all, restricting energy use is the newest and coolest way to prod people into ceding their freedom to government.
Undoubtedly, many think this is just conjecture from a gun-toting, Bible-quoting, right wing radical, right? Never in America could the government force ordinary citizens to consume less electricity. I mean, it’s never even been attempted before, right?
If only.
In November 2007 the California Energy Commission proposed a plan that would have required the installation of “programmable control thermostats” that would have allowed for the regulation of energy consumption “as California's public and private utility organizations [deemed] necessary.”
It’s true that this proposal was rejected as a result of the overwhelming disapproval voiced by Californians, but, as we’ve established, the opinion of the people only means so much when there’s a boogie man to slay.
Instead of dropping the idea altogether, as the public wished, the California Energy Commission argued that they just need to sell the proposal better next time by getting more information out to consumers. Of course that’s the answer. The public “just [needs] to learn more about energy rationing to love it,” as Steve Milloy satirically explained.
Since there is such a powerful lobby behind the effort to mandate reductions in energy consumption, have no doubt that these hip, new “smart meters” could be used to force consumers to comply. Realistically, once the meters are installed the hard work’s done—they’ll have the technical ability to control energy usage.
The second problem with the renovations is that they’re based on energy conservation—a second-best solution if there ever was one. The preferable solution is to produce more electricity, which is doable if the energy Nazis would just step out of the way. If the burdensome regulations and legal barriers were removed, America could increasing rely on nuclear power as a cleaner, cheaper source of electricity. This way, the strain on the power grid would be eliminated, mother earth would be saved from pollution, and consumers wouldn’t be robbed of their personal freedom. What more could one ask for?
Consumers—Sacramentans in this case—should remain skeptical of energy rationing schemes. Meeting growing energy demands can be done without giving government officials and energy utilities Orwellian control over the lives of private citizens.
