By Warren Woodward, Sedona Resident
(May 17, 2014)
Industry mouthpiece SmartGridNews finally admitted today that “smart” meters are surveillance devices. Of course they didn’t quite put it that bluntly. In fact, they celebrate the ability of utilities to know what appliances people use as another tool to help craft the wonderful world of the future.
Below is my letter to the Arizona Corporation Commission pointing out that industry has finally come out and admitted what I and others have been saying for years.
The link to the SmartGridNews article entitled, Now utilities can tell customers how much energy each appliance uses (just from the smart meter data), follows the letter.
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Warren Woodward
Sedona, Arizona 86336
May 15, 2014
Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC)
Docket Control Center
1200 West Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
Re: Docket # E-01345A-14-0113
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Here is breaking news. SmartGridNews has just come out of the closet and admitted what I and others have been saying all long: “Smart meters” are surveillance devices.
APS and utilities nationwide have been denying the surveillance capability of “smart meters but here is one of the foremost “smart meter cheerleaders in the world finally admitting the truth.
SmartGridNews calls such “smart” grid industry names as Telvent, Silver Spring Networks and Lockheed Martin its “major sponsors.” So of course the news story attempts to put a positive spin on the surveillance, hyping such nonsense as an “over 4% conservation [of energy] after just a few months.”
Wow, that means I might save four whole dollars and change on a one hundred dollar electrical bill. Where do I sign up to be spied on?
Enclosed is the SmartGridNews article, Now utilities can tell customers how much energy each appliance uses (just from the smart meter data).
Sincerely,
Warren Woodward
PS – In the article, note the creepy picture of a guy dressed in black and using binoculars. SmartGridNews is shameless to promote Peeping Toms as cool. Note also Orwellian phrasing such as “behavioral science” and turning ratepayers into “willing partners”. It’s not a “smart grid”; it’s a sick grid.
Article:
Now utilities can tell customers how much energy each appliance uses (just from the smart meter data)
2 Comments
As they can tell the consumer how much electricity and from which appliance they are using, they also have the capability to control that consumer’s electric consumption of the utility, or more accurately the person monitoring consumption can control that consumer’s usage.
Good job, Warren.
Smart Meters are a real-time tracking device that monitors your household and what you do in it as part of the total surveillance system being put in place by the government. This is just another invasion of privacy. Your individual power supply can be disrupted at any time, as well as your whole neighborhood, community or state. Smart Meters monitor every appliance in your home.
Your energy may be rationed for any 24 hr. period, so opening and closing your refrigerator too many times during the daily billing cycle can cause your power to be disrupted. Your usage other appliances, lights and Internet time may be charged against your daily allowance of power.
Do I really want my stove sending out an SOS and having a “repair” man show up because my oven made an appointment? I don’t want anything in my house that is sending and retrieving messages without my knowledge or consent. And what if the repair man shows up and you don’t want the appliance fixed at that time? Do they call DHS???