Letter to the Editor: Another Utility Lie Exposed – “Smart” meters are little used for outage alerts.

Information & Perspective by Warren Woodward
(April 29, 2015)

As part of their “smart” meter propaganda, utilities nationwide – including ones in Arizona – have promoted a myth that “smart” meters reduce their response time to outages. For example, here’s a typical sampling of website hype from four Arizona utilities:

Navopache Electric Coop: “… AMI helps locate and respond to outages faster ….”

Mohave Electric Coop: “… improve system reliability through improved outage management ….”

APS: “In addition, the meters have the potential to assist APS in providing faster outage response to customers.”

SRP: “More benefits will include quicker outage restoration ….”

Gee whiz, ain’t “smart” meter technology grand?! Indeed, SRP headlined its webpage “TOMORROW’S GRID TODAY” in enormous font. Read More→