Southern California Edison will start notifying its more than 180,000 customers in Ventura County today of plans to replace electric meters with so-called smart meters, a company representative told the Santa Paula City Council this week.
The new meters will provide customers new conveniences, Edison spokeswoman Nancy Williams told the council Tuesday night.
These include more up-to-date information on electricity use. Analog meters provide only monthly consumption amounts, but the new ones will tell customers how much electricity they have used in the past 24 hours, Williams said.
Eventually, the new meters may provide even more up-to-date information, she added. They will allow wireless transmission of consumption data, meaning Edison no longer will have to send workers to homes to read meters.
Workers will not be jumping over fences to install the meters, Williams said. If they cannot reach the old meter to swap it with a new one, they will leave a notice at the home stating they could not replace the meter.
Williams' appearance before the council came after a resident expressed worries about the wireless meters, saying they pose threats to human health and to the environment.
The resident said she knew people who had terrible headaches and other health problems after the new meters were installed in Northern California by Pacific Gas & Electric.
She added that the meters have caused honeybees to disappear from areas where they were installed.
The woman urged the council to consider a moratorium on the new meters.
Williams disputed the claims, saying all the evidence shows the meters are safe.
Residents not wanting to have the new meters installed can put their names on a delay list, Williams said. To do so, call 800-810-2369. Spanish speakers can call 800-477-4455.
Communities scheduled to get the new meters include Oak View, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Camarillo and parts of Moorpark and Fillmore.
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Comments » 19
Lets_Be_Truthful writes:
Have they found new positions for those meter readers that will be put out of a job?
grumpier writes:
I don't want host of new conveniences from Edison.
I don't want up-to-date information on electricity consumption. I'm not going to change any of my (new) appliances based on information that I receive from my electric bill, and I'm not going to change any of my behaviors based on any information that I receive from my electric bill either. I don't want Edison to know when I'm washing my clothes, and I don't want anybody from the government to know when I'm washing my clothes. The only people whom this will benefit, besides an increasing army of well paid busybody functionaries, are the criminals who will figure out in less than 5 minutes how to intercept and use my real-time electric usage data to determine when to break into my house. The idea that this is paid for with "free money" is becoming quite irritating. The money would be much better spent dropping a couple of nuke plants here in the Southland to deliver safe, clean, reliable base load that is desperately needed to avert the calamity that will inevitably result from having to import more and more electricity from farther and farther afield. Or even in increasing the existing transmission capacity to more robustly deliver the electricity from existing sources. As to disposal of the old meters, there are two methods currently used to get rid of old electronic waste. One of them is to have convicts bang on it with hammers; their health care is, after all, "free". The other is to ship it to China and have eight year old Chinese kids bang on it with hammers down by the river. Their healthcare is also "free".
The granularity of the data recorded by these machines constitutes a search of private premises. I pray to God we can get our Government back and start to put and end to these insane usurpations.
doright writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
grumpier writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
RobertWilliams writes:
SMART METER HEALTH REPORT
HEALTH DEPARTMENT SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, STATE OF CALIFORNIA JANUARY 2012.
(Statements, not all 11 pages)
- Smart meters expose persons in the home to FULL BODY RADIATION EXPOSURES 50 to 450 times greater radiation than cell phones depending on proximity in the home to the smart meter attached to outside wall (calculated using the inverse square).
- Smart meters emit radiation almost continuously throughout the day 24/7, 365 days per year.
- Increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier in the head, harmful effects on sperm, double strand breaks in DNA which could lead to cancer genesis, stress gene activation indicating exposure to a toxin, and alterations in brain glucose metabolism.
- Electro Hypersensitivity is a real and sometimes debilitating problem for the affected persons. . Above affects are occurring to all persons, not just those who are hypersensitive (added for clarification).
- FCC guidelines are irrelevant and cannot be used for any claims of Smart Meter safety unless heat damage is involved
- Smart meter exposure is Involuntary exposure. Governmental agencies for protecting public health and safety should be much more vigilant towards involuntary environmental exposures because governmental agencies are the only defense against such involuntary exposure.
Complete 11 page report posted at:
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/wp-conten...
RobertWilliams writes:
HACKERS SEE OUR SMART METER ACTIVITIES BETTER THAN WE DO
Utility companies and hackers can access your precise activities in your home, but the utility customer living in the home CANNOT get that information.
The information available to the customer living in the home shows up on the utility company website 18-24 hours later with all devices grouped together, so no individual electrical device can be isolated for the customer.
Customers cannot see what the hacker or utility company can see. Without knowing how much each electrical device uses, the customer cannot use the smart meter information to improve or conserve their energy use.
So unless the customer can hack the information spewing from their own wireless smart meter, the smart meter information provided by the utility company for the customer is useless to the customer.
RobertWilliams writes:
SMART METERS REJECTED
Palo Alto, the center of California’s Silicon Valley, Rejects Smart Meters.
Smart Meter benefits are overstated and Smart Meter COSTS are greater than benefits.
…and customers (or taxpayers funding federal grants) are left with $ Billion dollar smart meter programs on their shoulders.
http://paloalto.patch.com/articles/no...
doright writes:
"troll"....I soooo hurt... I must return to the underside of the bridge.
doright writes:
Hey Grumpier, I guess the Star didnt like us bantering a bit. Another time I guess, til then keep :)
TheCrusader writes:
Can you spell C A N C E R ?
RobertWilliams writes:
VENTURA COUNTY - JUST SAY NO!
SCE is trying to get the Smart Meters installed before people are aware of the problems.
30 States and Canada and many countries in Europe have people fighting these smart meters and revealing to others the problems, and the numbers are growing.
Already in California, Maine, Connecticut, Michigan and other states, people can CHOOSE not to have the smart meter. But this came from a fight, informing neighbors, speaking at city councils and county boards, public demonstrations, setting up websites of true information and documenting the people's stories who are living out of their homes after smart meter installation.
Nancy Williams, Edison spokesman, has NEVER been in a laboratory to see the (1) Cell Damage, (2) DNA Chain Breaks (3) Breaches in the Blood-brain barrier from levels of non-ionizing radiation LOWER THAN emitted by smart meters. She is a PUBLIC RELATIONS robot. Lies come out of her mouth like bats out of a cave.
The founding fathers of this country warned us that to protect our families, to keep our freedom and democracy, we would have to fight and the threat would not come from outside or from amongst us people, but from the government and large business interests who want more.
The best time to take a stand is NOW.
Don't allow them to turn your house into a microwave oven, on 24/7 365 days per year at a low setting so most people won't feel the problems right away. We can't see the radiation problem with our eyes as we can see a gun, but our children still need to be protected.
In order to not re-invent the wheel, for information and assistance contact
napervillesmartmeterawareness.org
stopsmartmeters.org
emfsafetynetwork.org
doright writes:
O B A M A C A R E .....
heritagevalley11 writes:
I heard they can shut down your electricity at any point wirelessly, especially at peak consumption.
Just wait for that one hot day that you need your air conditioner. If Edison doesn't do it the hackers will.
Bucklava writes:
Smart Meters are just another SPY tool used by the government to know what, when, how, etc. you are using electricity.
Eventually they will TELL you when, where, and how you can use it.
CALL THE NUMBER TO OPT OUT!!!
RobertWilliams writes:
SMART METER PRIVACY VIOLATIONS.
Must-See 4-minute youtube video on Smart meters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
SKYROCKETING UTILITY BILLS AFTER SMART METER INSTALLATION
TV News Video (3 minutes)
http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/63...
NATIONAL SECURITY RISKS DUE TO SMART METERS.
CIA Director James Woolsey calls Smart grid “Stupid” due to National Security problems caused by so-called smart meters.
News Video (1 minute)
http://www.energynow.com/video/2011/0...
Bassive_Malls writes:
Silly, with the new meters, we won't need the extra power generation capacity, electricity can simply be turned off to anyone with the new meter, thereby reducing any possibility of overloading the grid.
StrongIsland writes:
Without the need to send out hundreds of meter readers, the price of electricity to consumers will drop monumentally.
Lets_Be_Truthful writes:
Do you really think so? Edison wants the increased profit by not having as many employees to pay. They then will come up with another way to charges people such as a terminal fee for use of the smart meters. Remember when people cut down on water usage? Their bill went down only until the water company was losing money so they raised the rates. Same thing will happen here. Edison will never lose money or an give up the opportunity to make more.
313426 writes:
that can already be done.
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