“There were a number of reasons to do it,” said Baltimore Gas and Electric smart grid director Michael Butts. “One is we knew that (smart meters) could improve customer service, and there were programs that we could give to our customers that could help save money.”
Other benefits of a “smart grid” include more accurate monthly bills, quicker response to power outages and less energy use across BGE’s service area, Butts said.
For the most part, the rollout, which is nearing completion, has gone smoothly. BGE alone has changed out more than a million old-style analog or digital meters, replacing spinning dials with digital displays and online charts. Customers can log in to a website to view their power use down to the minute, and meter-readers have been retrained for other positions as radio-frequency signals in the air replace people and trucks sweeping the neighborhoods.
But on the other side of the power line is a population of holdouts and their self-appointed advocates: a band of concerned residents who dispute nearly every claim they’ve heard from utilities across the state about the new grid.
The holdouts are a relatively small group — about 26,000 from BGE, Pepco and Delmarva Power’s combined customer base of a few million — but they’ve made their voices heard very clearly in government and their communities.
15 comments:
Choptank will be installing them on the shore very soon.
Everything they boast about are lies... It is a way to track you, and if the smart meters are so awesome, then why do you have to lie about them in the first place?
On their own damn website it says it might send a signal to home base, a few times a day when if you use a tools electrical engineers use, it will show you that the signal is nearly 100x that amount being sent over the waves to the home base... Not to mention, the smart meters can be hacked, and has been proven by certain hackers... It also, can tell you, which appliances is being used and where it is in the home... it can also work like a EKG and send pulses through your walls and can make a digital image of a persons heart beat and where they stand is said room of said house... If you remember and look back, you will see when the NSA and CIA and all had light shed on their spying programs, the directer head said, don't worry about your cell phones being tacked, we will track you their your home appliances like your washer or dryer... not to mention when this first came out it was causing house fires and appliances to short out and stop working due to overloading...
I am not sure of the health affects of this meter though, some suggest it is bad and others say it is fine...
Isn't it funny though, how they have electric lines and data lines that can send this so called data, but they have to install a new smart grid system for wireless transition of data???
I personally think it is to track and spy on you and more importantly, it is so they can shut off your electric or heat with a button press instead of having to send out someone to turn it off, in which you can defend against that person by standing guard...
If you have a cell phone you are being tracked 24/7.
Cell phone cant turn my electric off.
let's see... if they want to track me... i go to work. I go home. I go to work. i go home. rinse and repeat.
2:36. Pay your bill on time and electricity won't be shut off. Pretty easy concept.
News flash! Tinfoil on sale at Foodlion.
A. Turlock
3:25 you miss the point.
When in the future will electricity be rationed like water is in California?
So, you keep your house at 70 in the summer, well click off goes your power.
Think ahead man. Think ahead!
Get back to me when you no longer have a microwave, cellphone, wireless router, satellite TV, OnStar, remote controlled TV/ceiling fan/car starter etc. Once you have rid yourself on all the device that transmit wirelessly, then you can keep your old analog meter. Please be remind that even if you don't have any of the items, the energy waves are bombarding you none the less overtime you step outside or do you think that satellite TV just sends signals to the houses with a dish on the roof?
A. Turlock
All of the "saving money" arguments benefit the utility. ie, "Less Meter Readers!" But they never say you get a discount for not needing a meter reading, do they? Do they charge you less per kwh for having the meter? No! They tried to argue that it costs 'em like $70 per read when they had to send the PSC suggested opt-out fees. Like it takes an hour to read a meter.
The other argument that bothers me is that it "helps us meet energy reduction goals." Do you really think a pretty graph is going to make you live any differently? Heck no! You reduce consumption via the following ways - 1. Install more efficient systems (natural replacement cycle and cost/benefit analysis are responsible for this. Not graphs!). - 2. Ration the electricity provided (can't use more than your "fair" share!). 3. Increase the cost of electricity (so you really can't afford to use that much).
The only real benefit to consumers that I see might be faster outage reporting. But when we make calls, they're pretty fast to identify the problem and get people working on it. It's not like it takes them all day to find the problem. I've called ~15 minutes out of an outage and received a recording saying they knew where the problem was.
The real sketchy part is the "Internet of things" argument. I think it was Patreaus said it in Congressional testimony. Being spied on by your washer and dryer isn't a conspiracy theory at all.
Hey, Turlock. Is is the extra heavy duty kind, or just the regular?
It's important that I know...
LOl It's the regular kind but you can double up on it and if really paranoid go for the triple - full body wrap.
4:18. If we ever get to the point that electricity has to be rationed like water in California, we've got bigger problems than keeping you comfortable at 70 degrees in the summer.
I am robbed each month by the electric company because I refused the smart meter. I was charged an "opt out" fee, and every month they steal more from me for the privilege of NOT having one.
And to 6:22, the astronomical electric prices are coming...it is predicted that our area will have electric bills as high as 8X higher than current bills if Obama gets his way.
Yet another reason to explore, develop and implement Overunity generators. Then get rid of the DP&Ls and REAs altogether., make your own.
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