Posted on 03/18/2012 3:01:05 PM PDT by RedMDer
Starting in May, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. will begin installing "smart meters" in a huge undertaking intended to modernize Central Maryland's electricity grid and save customers money by helping them control energy use. ...
"We look at this as the most transformational change in the electricity grid in the last 100 years," said Mark D. Case, BGE's vice president of strategy and regulatory affairs. "It is really not overstating it to describe it in those terms."
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
People using a lot of grow lamps in their basements for herb production should probably be concerned. The smart reader is also harder to bypass.
Why would one want to opt out? There will be big cost savings by eliminating all the meter readers,their vehicles and the personnel needed to manually process the data.
I have such a meter and it poses no threat, neither real nor imagined
Don’t you have a hand held radio transmitter called a cell phone? The system is essentially a cell phone that transmits preprogrammed data.
The meter doesn’t pose a threat, just as turning in our guns poses no threat, just as relinquishing control of anything you use poos no threat.
The threat will come later when the masses are impotent to resist the controlling authority.
FWIW, I agree there are cost savings associated with remote meter reading, but coupled with motion detector switches and timer switches, which also may be monitored by others, the privacy of each citizen is being stalked.
It is now feasible to identify the exact location of every person on military bases simply by controlling their energy management systems. Great intel tool if one were an adversary of the Constitution.
Since the motives to install these are economic, why aren’t the costs to install also included in their economic analyses?
Why perform $200-$2000 in materials and labor while inviting huge public relations liabilities to save no more than $2-20 in power?
Why interrupt the normal utility cycles with higher dynamic transients in demand metrics when larger utility systems are more reliable with slower changing systems?
There are more significant arguments against their distribution and use than supporting them. Additionally, they empower centralized control and allow communication of previously private information.
No more hiding places for Anne Franks.
Life is for living, not for fearing
Exactly. Great argument for not installing such invasive technology.
So you do not see it as the way for the utility to limit your use? Or perhaps you enjoy the idea of outside control of your home and your own ability to ‘control’ your energy usage?
Out here in the boonies of east TN, when we want to control our energy use, we use those little wall thingies, I think you might call them ‘switches’ or somesuch.
Perhaps you will also welcome a mandated engine governor for your vehicle that can be monitored and adjusted to give you the very best milage while you drive?
What does it look like down there under all that sand?
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