Well, allegedy we can’t continue to keep our thermostats set at 72º. At the last rental residence I had, after smart metering was implemented, I received a notice, asking me if I would be willing to have my air conditioning shut of for 10 minutes out of every half hour, in order to ensure there wasn’t a high demand on the grid during the midday hours. It wasn’t yet mandatory, but if I committed to do so, it would cut out for ten minutes no matter what the inside temp was and that most “would only notice an increase of 2-4 degrees at most, barely noticable to the average user.”
Needless to say, I was displeased. This is unbelievable, and all made possible, through our “advanced” “smart metering.” What a joke! Wake up people, it’s coming...
Would it be possible to put a faraday cage around these commie boxes? For those who are unfamiliar with these, they are asimple metal screen that blocks ALL radio signals. Kind of like the screen on a screen door. Could easily disguised as something common around the house or build into something like a shade structure or porch roof.. Just a thought.
I feel bad for the poor senior citizen who can't take the heat or cold during these "power interruptions".
Security on networked systems is always something that demands attention and good controls. I’m not sure it presents much of an increased risk here, though, as an attacker can still kill your power the old fashioned way... by cutting the wire.
One thing I really like about the new meters (I just got one) is that the power utility company can see outages in real time, and they can tell quickly and exactly who still has their power out.