Something you should read.... One day someone came home AND THIER HOUSE WAS 80 DEGREES!!....
Not going to bother opening the link to read that, so I'll make an edumacated guess that the customer had signed up for load shedding service in exchange for a lower rate. Our POCO offers that service too. One day the area's consumption was close to 100% and the POCO decided to shed some non-critical loads for awhile so they signalled AC off, consistent with the customer's agreement that allowed it during a power shortage. So what's the mystery? Where's the evil crime?
Exactly!
This has NOTHING to do with smart meters. It is a remote override system that you opt into.
Something you should read.... One day someone came home AND THIER HOUSE WAS 80 DEGREES!!....
Not going to bother opening the link to read that, so I'll make an edumacated guess that the customer had signed up for load shedding service in exchange for a lower rate. Our POCO offers that service too. One day the area's consumption was close to 100% and the POCO decided to shed some non-critical loads for awhile so they signalled AC off, consistent with the customer's agreement that allowed it during a power shortage. So what's the mystery? Where's the evil crime?
Exactly!
This has NOTHING to do with smart meters. It is a remote override system that you opt into.
Indeed, absolutely nothing to do with smart meters. Such devices to remotely turn off large non-critical loads have existed for several decades before the concept of smart meters was even invented.
The earliest of devices were purely electro-mechanical. The utility would inject a high frequency signal over the power lines to which the switching device would respond by either turning on or off. No electronics involved at all. Not exactly sure how they did it, probably some type of vibrating reed that would resonate at a specific frequency.
I don't know what's on the receiver end, but the above system must have some sort of active electronics, since it's a coded pulse train that's delivered (based on the sound of the motor). I guess a simpler system could exist where the load device just filters for the signal frequency and closes a relay with the filter output.
Very interesting stuff. I poked around a bit and was disappointed to find there is very little information online pertaining to how the ripple control receiver works. This may be because they were not widely deployed in the US.
However I was pleased to learn that in South Africa, a domestic water heater is called a "geyser".
Not sure what the big deal is and why people are freaking out.
They put one on the side of my house (cellular based, complete with IP address) for the solar panels and it just sits there and minds its own business.
Not sure what the big deal is and why people are freaking out.
They put one on the side of my house (cellular based, complete with IP address) for the solar panels and it just sits there and minds its own business.
Because why should the electric company know how much electricity a customer uses, and when they use it? That's an invasion of privacy.
No...Users should pay based on the TOU. TOU billing is the only way we can finally make all the energy hogs pay their fair share. Unlike bandwidth, electricity is finite.
Not sure what the big deal is and why people are freaking out.
They put one on the side of my house (cellular based, complete with IP address) for the solar panels and it just sits there and minds its own business.
Because why should the electric company know how much electricity a customer uses, and when they use it? That's an invasion of privacy.
Well, last I checked, they need to know how much you used so you can get a shiny bill each month.
Not sure what the big deal is and why people are freaking out.
They put one on the side of my house (cellular based, complete with IP address) for the solar panels and it just sits there and minds its own business.
Because why should the electric company know how much electricity a customer uses, and when they use it? That's an invasion of privacy.
I went to a remote-read smart-meter with time-of-use billing about a year and a half ago or so...
Didn't see any real difference in the bills, one way or the other... Didn't go down, in any meaningful way; but didn't go up, either.
One of my wive's friends had a case where her bill went up dramatically with the new smart meter; but I'm pretty sure the old mechanical one was running slow, so even replacing with a new 'old' meter would likely have had the same result.
My bigger complaint is the ToU rates - I guess people have been too good at switching their usage to off-peak times, so the local utility has jacked the off-peak rate so that it's not much different then the peak one...
Central Maine Power installed a smart meter at my grandma's house last year.
I am hoping Western Mass Electric installs them in the future. Our neighbor in the duplex moved out and shut the power off, leaving the pipes in danger of freezing. The landlord had to wait two days to get the power turned back on so they gave us a $10 rent credit and she ran an extension cord off our power to run a space heater.
Theres a reason behind these besides jacking your rates, and possible power rationing.... Why do the installers of these meters have to hold a person at gun point to force an install of this garbage?
The poor "tinfoil hat" excuse, just doesn't work anymore.
None of the links you posted have anything to do with smart meters.
I agree with you the Internet of things poses a number of privacy problems.
Smart meters have a number of advantages in reducing labor costs and timely notification of outages.
Peak generation is very expensive. Commercial customers are already billed that way I see no reason residential customers should be exempt. Knowing peak times coupled with smart appliances let folks decide to consume energy now or delay it in exchange for lower cost.
Smart appliances will also fit in well with emergency generation allowing peak load to be controlled so it does not exceed generating capacity. However that has nothing to do with smart meters.
Lastly there is the exciting possibility of using electric vehicles to pump power back into the grid during peak times - to reduce the need for expensive peaking plants.
The poor "tinfoil hat" excuse, just doesn't work anymore.
None of the links you posted have anything to do with smart meters.
I agree with you the Internet of things poses a number of privacy problems.
Smart meters have a number of advantages in reducing labor costs and timely notification of outages.
Peak generation is very expensive. Commercial customers are already billed that way I see no reason residential customers should be exempt. Knowing peak times coupled with smart appliances let folks decide to consume energy now or delay it in exchange for lower cost.
Smart appliances will also fit in well with emergency generation allowing peak load to be controlled so it does not exceed generating capacity. However that has nothing to do with smart meters.
Lastly there is the exciting possibility of using electric vehicles to pump power back into the grid during peak times - to reduce the need for expensive peaking plants.
/Tom
Those electronics could receive commands sent to the smart meter, so technically yes they do have something to do with smart meters, just not at this very moment.
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