Abovetopsecret makes Weekly World News look respectable. There’s probably about as much truth in that article as there is in the Bat Boy stories.
ransomnote: Way to feed us to the ad mill, jerk.
Remember the ones who used to come around and make the dogs bark. Now the electric and even some of the gas meter guys are gone and a ton of money was saved.
I just wish they had passed on the savings to us.
I can't accept the word of someone who doesn't understand that words mean things.
X reads a little like Ulsterman
Smart meters report usage every 15 minutes. The idea is to bill higher for use during peak periods and lower during idler times.
Power generation isn’t like throwing a switch. If there’s a sudden surge in demand, the generators have to be started up, which takes time, or the additional power has to be purchased from someone on the grid who has excess. If there’s none immediately available, you brown out.
Electricity can’t be stored efficiently, so it must be generated on demand, and it takes a while to respond to spikes. So it’s not unreasonable for power companies to want to smooth out the demand curve. Smart metering is one way they’re doing that.
I’m not surprised. Went to a meeting Wed pm where folks from Empower Texas stated that our PUC (public utility commission) wants to allow power providers to bill based upon their CAPACITY to use rather than what the customer actually used. The power companies aren’t making enough.
I believe anything is possible - look what Enron did the year before they imploded. heating bills more than mortgage pmts. no refunds were given.
Deborah Tavares - Smart Meters at Oathkeeperss Meeting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5mAOyp6fRc
http://www.stopthecrime.net/smartmeters/index.html
Searching FR using “smart meter” turned up a list of articles
Most recent:
Smart Meters join ObamaCare in monitoring Florida’s Serfs
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3111223/posts
From 2011
Ironically-Named ‘Smart Meters’ Prove to Be a Dumb Idea
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2695671/posts
“Smart Meter” search would turn up many results so narrow the search by adding + cost of energy.
The link below was posted on page 2 of the thread posted.
California Allows Power Companies to Charge Different Rates Throughout the Day — in 2018
http://nextcity.org/theworks/entry/california-allows-power-companies-time-of-use-solar-power
The smart meters are much more accurate long-term than the old EM (electromechanical) meters, because the electronics can better compensate for temperature, and there is no wear like there is in the EM meters.
The meters are calibrated for accuracy in the factory, and are spot-checked by the utilities. It is in their financial interest to have them accurate. So there goes the theory about them being used to raise your power bill.
The primary reason for smart meters, though, is to allow time-of-day-based rates ("peak shaving") in residences. If the power company can get updates every hour or so on what the (for example) A/C demand out in the 'burbs is doing to their line voltage, they will have better control over where and when to add auxiliary generation.
When they bring a generator online, it costs money. They don't do it until they absolutely have to do so to keep the power line voltages from sagging too far, which causes a brownout and causes motors and transformers to heat up.
There's FAR too much paranoia out there. It mostly because people don't understand the basic premise of electric utilities: power has to be generated as it's used, because there is no economically-sound way to store electric energy at the power levels the grid delivers.
I think the most interesting twist is how power companies now want to charge customers higher rates for producing part of their own energy.
That is, if you spend $30,000 to install solar panels, and even put energy back in to the system to pay lower rates, the energy companies are now saying that you should have to pay *more* than other customers for the same energy.
Their rationale for this is that they have to provide all the energy infrastructure for everybody, so by paying less for energy, or not using as much energy, “it is like stealing” from the other customers who don’t.
Yeah, that is utter hooey. Importantly, zoning laws in many municipalities *require* that even if you produce *all* your own energy, you still *must* be connected to the grid, or else the property is “not fit for human occupation.” They use this same racket to require people to have a municipal water supply, and pay the fees for it, even if they don’t use it.
home
I read more of what person "X" had to say in the article, and I was struck by the question: "Is English a second language in England?"
POWER COMPANIES, because they are necessary monopolies,are regulated by the PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION and cannot charge more that the PSC allows.
Years ago, in a certain state, the electric lines were in poor shape. Electricity was “iffy” as maintainance was not done to keep service up.
The reason was some members of the PSC were elected on the promise to keep rates low. The only way the PSC could do that was to deny the electric companies any rate increases for line upkeep, so the lines were in bad shape.
When those members of the PSC finally retired, new members allowed a rate increase and the lines got the maintainance they needed.
Everyone seems to think that utilities are a “right”. No, you pay for them.
Our electric rates are the highest in Arkansas. Yet, when there is an ice storm, we lose less electricity because our higher rates keep the lines in good shape.
We were without power for three days, several years ago, when many other areas on other company power lines were out for THREE WEEKS.