A news item in the NY Times caught my eye today: New Electricity Meters Stir Fears. Felicity Barringer reports from northern California on growing resistance to efforts by Pacific Gas & Electric to install wireless 'smart' meters. People are blocking roads, holding protests, and generally getting in an uproar over fears about health and fears about privacy violations.
Whatever else it says about an America stumbling into the 21st century, public trust is in decline while fear and anger are enjoying a bull market.
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How Does It Work?
For those who haven't run into the Smart Meter concept before, the idea is to allow consumers and suppliers to track their energy usage more closely. Where a traditional dumb meter just totals up power usage over the month, like an odometer ticking over miles in a car, a smart meter does more.
To continue with the car analogy, picture an odometer that not only keeps track of how far you've driven, but also keeps track of how fast you were going from minute to minute, and what kind of gas mileage you were getting. Think that might help you drive smarter, reduce how much gasoline you burn through? How about it also telling you when/where to get the cheapest gasoline? Interested?
Smart meters offer roughly the same kind of benefits to electricity users - and to utilities. The kind of meters PG&E is trying to install offer two-way communication. They not only report detailed power usage back to PG&E, they can also provide extra features, such as making it possible for PG&E to see exactly where power outages are taking place, house by house. Meanwhile, PG&E customers can see in real time exactly how what they're doing affects how much electricity they're using.
A smart meter isn't the only way to do this; people can buy their own electricty monitors now. These have been shown to cut electricity usage - in theory. (There's the argument people actually use more if they can see when electricity is cheapest.) What the monitor does not do is allow the power company to interact directly with the consumer, or tell how much power someone is using other than month by month.
Now utilities only have so much capacity to generate power and/or get it from other suppliers. Demand varies throughout the day as people wake up, turn things on, crank up the AC when it gets hot, run washers & driers, etc. At peak demand, it's possible for a utility to be running close to the limits of the power they can supply. Smart meters can 'tell' customers to turn off things if a brown-out is shaping up. If the power company charges more for electricity at peak times, that also gives customers an incentive to keep track of how much they're using, and when. They can opt to run high demand gear at times when rates are lowest. "Smart" appliances can do this automatically - or at least that's the theory.
This kind of technology is a key element in managing America's energy usage more effectively. If power producers and consumers can work together to manage usage to smooth out peaks and spread demand around the clock: A) the total capacity of the system doesn't need to be as high, B) use of the dirtiest and/or most inefficient power sources to meet peak demand can be cut back, and C) producers and consumers get more immediate feedback on what works.
Power Struggle - The Dark Side of Smart Meters
Resistance to the PG&E effort to install smart meters is based on a couple of fears. One is the type of meter: PG&E is using wireless meters for electricity (and gas) linked "via a secure wireless communication network." Not having to run cable saves a lot of money, should be more reliable, and makes installation easier.
The problem is, there are people who are convinced the EMF of the wireless transmitter at the power levels and frequencies being used causes health problems. As the NY Times notes,
The health concerns about the smart meters focus on the phenomenon known as “electromagnetic hypersensitivity,” or E.H.S., in which people claim that radiation from cellphones, WiFi systems or smart meters causes them to suffer dizziness, fatigue, headaches, sleeplessness or heart palpitations. (At a recent Public Utilities Commission hearing on smart meters, an audience member requested that all cellphones be turned off as a gesture to the electrosensitive people in the audience.)
The two most recent government reviews of available research found no link between health problems and common levels of electromagnetic radiation. Both reports indicated that more research would be welcome; on that basis, opponents say the meters should not be installed until they are proved safe.
The second concern driving the protests is a perception that PG&E is ramming this technology down people's throats, regardless of what they may want - and that the authorities are doing nothing, possibly for sinister reasons. This is creating some odd bedfellows as protestors from both right and left sides of the political spectrum make common cause. Privacy is an issue for some - they are worried about what PG&E might do with the information they'll be collecting, and who they'll share it with. Generalized paranoia about creeping government control ties in all too easily with these fears.
Ironically, one reason PG&E cites as an advantage for smart meters IS privacy. They point out that once a smart meter is installed, they'll no longer need to send meter readers on to peoples property to read them. There are other things that could be done to address the fears of people as well. Monitors would supply many of the benefits of smart meters without the privacy concerns. Wired connections would take care of EMF fears.
Or should, in a rational world.
The Future Isn't What It Used To Be.
President Obama has talked about the investment America needs to make in infrastructure to adapt to the challenges of the 21st Century. Smart meters are part of the larger puzzle on how we're going to get there. It might be easy to label the opponents misguided or worse. It might be - but it isn't.
The recent past isn't a help in dealing with paranoia about corporations, government, or technology - there are too many ongoing examples to allow such fears to be dismissed easily. America is going to pay a high price for the repeated betrayals of trust we've undergone, but we really don't have a choice. "The Future is Real Soon Now" - the only questions are how we're going to get there and what it will look like.