RichmondSFBlog reader Clark wrote in just now to tell me about some real-time protest that is taking place in the Inner Richmond today.
Recently, you may have come home to find a pamphlet on your front doorstep, informing you that your new PG&E wireless SmartMeter has been installed. I just received mine this week.
The new meters are called “smart” because they can wirelessly communicate gas and electricity usage to PG&E, eliminating the need for the small army of employees that have to manually check meters each month. PG&E can also make that information more easily accessible to customers online, allowing them to monitor and curtail their energy usage. More on how SmartMeters work
Today, two anti-SmartMeter advocates from stopsmartmeters.org have been in the neighborhood “informing residents about the negative aspects of these smart meters,” according to Clark. This included handing out flyers to residents, pictured below.
As they do, they’re staying one house ahead of the contractor, Wellington Energy, who is installing PG&E’s new SmartMeters in the Richmond District (and in other areas of the city). The Richmond District is one of the first neighborhoods to receive them.
Clark, who lives on 2nd Avenue near Clement, says he chose to decline installation today “based on the lack of notice and information about these smart meters.” When he did, the Wellington Energy contractor “just nodded his head” and moved on, Clark reported. Another neighbor on his block also declined installation.
Police arrived on scene around 2pm this afternoon and asked one of the protesters to “back off a bit,” Clark says.
Similar actions were taken in the Marina District on March 1, when a small group of protesters yelled and waved signs reading “Stop PG&E SmartMeters” and “Democracy of choice” as they gathered near the Wellington Energy truck that was on site.
Despite the stated benefits, not everyone is jumping for joy about the SmartMeter and based on today’s action, some residents are still weary of them being installed despite PG&E’s efforts to educate consumers.
The SF Examiner reports that “Since PG&E began installing the meters elsewhere in the state, it has received hundreds of complaints about accuracy and the potential impact on health.”
The counties of San Francisco and Santa Cruz even tried to halt the installations. But a state regulatory board rejected a petition from San Francisco in late 2010 to halt the arrival of SmartMeters, clearing the way for PG&E to begin installations in the city this year.
Just today, the California Public Utilities Commission announced that it will allow consumers to opt-out of receiving the smart meter devices.
However consumers will do so at a cost. California PUC President Michael Peevey did not say how much customers would be charged to opt-out or how the money collected would be used. PG&E is expected to submit a proposal in the next two weeks.
Today’s announcement did little to impress the anti-SmartMeter crowd at the CPUC meeting; they want a full moratorium on SmartMeter installations.
How do you feel about the new meters? If you are home when Wellington Energy arrives to install yours, will you accept or decline?
Sarah B.
Lack of notice? PG&E sent out letters weeks ago announcing it. How much notice do you need?
Gotta love seeing that strange brand of classic SF conservatism in action. Say “No!” to everything…
Thanks for posting this.
Taxpayers should have a choice!
Home-owners have the voice!
Considering PG&Es blatanat disregard for public safety these days (man-holes exploding downtown, San Bruno pipelines, etc), I wouldn’t be surprised if those meters were trojan horses for something else even more malicious that circumvents the law and public safety.
They have forsaken the trust of the people.
As long as they pad politicians pockets, they can continue doing the unspeakable.
What are the meters broadcasting to?
If it’s wireless…where are the receivers…on top of the telephone poles?
Can anyone intercept the signal and see what else is being transmitted?
Can you find an image of that notice online and replace the crinkled one?
Will covering the meter with foil, or something else, help inhibit the EMF/radiation?
Got mine installed today. Finally. I’ve been waiting to get real time info on my utility usage. I really don’t get what all the fuss is? Seems a tempest in a teapot. Time will tell!
Richmond District residents obviously really love Smart Meters. If not, why is everybody so silent? Eric Mar seems to embrace them. There is very little opposition to these Meters in San Francisco.
from the health risks noted it really seems insane. why would they even consider putting people at risk by basically installing something toxic in their homes? the whole neighborhood should veto. i don’t think getting sick is worth watching my usage in real time. how ridiculous.
Got mine installed yesterday. I look forward to not having PG&E have to enter my home to read my meter in the future. I am also happy to join the Smart Grid to help manage our energy usage.
Yeah, not buying the health risks on this one. Look at that flyer talking about cell phones and brain tumors. There is now credible research that does not support that supposition. There will likely be lots of good-intention fear that lingers (for many things…), but I will just not subscribe to this one. I still think it’s a tempest in a teapot and somewhat hysterical.
One meter, maybe but in an apartment building if you are over the utility meter area what kind of disruption will your innards get?
I think I read that the meter transmits for maybe 45 seconds a day. And since these meters would have to fall within the FCC guidelines for transmission I really doubt that there is any health issue.
This is like in the 1980s when they said living under high tension power lines caused leukemia. That “study” was proven to have been forged yet people still think there is an issue.
I’m all for PG&E installing smart meters. Of course, I’m also in favor of AT&T getting U-Verse TV in the Richmond as well (hint, hint AT&T).
By the sounds of it this city wants to be “connected” but only for things like cell phones (unless of course it disrupts their view).
If you live in an apartment building, do you have any choice? I haven’t been following all this, because I figure it’s up to my landlord. I don’t even know where our electric meters are located, so reading my smart meter myself would be pointless (I also don’t care – I don’t burn a ton of electricity and my bill is always low). But I also doubt that whatever they are transmitting is any more harmful than carrying a cell phone around in your pocket or pressed to your face all day. People always get upset when you change the paper in their cages (as my mother says)… the rabid opposition to anything new and possibly better strikes me as strange for a progressive place like SF though. (I’m thinking of footage I saw recently of Republicans freaking out over having to use CLF light bulbs…) Come ON!
I told PG&E I wanted to postpone my installation, and had a v. long talk w/ a call center operator about these meters. I was told the meter was for my benefit (hah!), and that it would help me monitor my energy consumption. When I responded by saying that I don’t have a problem w/ my energy bill and that if it was for my own good I’d just as soon opt out of the program, the guy from PG&E told me I couldn’t do that. How’s that for double talk? [Looks like PG&E has just rethought the opt out option. Hurrah!] I’m concerned these meters will give PG&E too much personal information. I also don’t like the added radio frequency these meters will create. Go to stopsmartmeters.org to learn more. I encourage everyone to politely opt out of, or at least postpone, installation. Call 866-743-0263. At least it’ll set the process back a little.
I have worked in the microwave/radio industry for 25 years now. These meters do not send out anything that could possibly harm you. First off the power being pushed out is the same as a cellphone. Which is not much. If you want to get scared about something, you should think about the power being pushed off of Sutro Tower. Also a very similar signal would be wifi. Do a quick wifi search to see what is being transmitted 24/7. These are misplaced fears based on more unqualified fears.
so long as the replacement can be done at my convenience (meaning a weekend that i’m actually home), i really don’t have a problem with it.
It’s been verified by government tests that Smart Meters cause: autism, hair loss, sleeplessness,fallen arches, cravings for salt, loss of appetite, trolls, love handles, and counter the effects of bikini waxes.
@Jommy: lol
This entire thing seems like a lot of fuss about nothing.
Wow, this is one heck of a fear-based campaign. Privacy concerns? So they will know what your aggregate usage is over the course of the day, big whoop! And know what appliances I use? I’m not sure they understand how power meters work (by measuring watt hours). It’s not like my TV is “communicating” with the power grid to say “Hi, I’m a TV!”. If anything, they will be able to see when usage goes up, which could be the result of anything from a hair drier to a blender. And the health risk bit… really? They make a big fuss about smart meters but lump WiFi and cell signals in with the same category? Where are the fliers against people using WiFi and cell phones?
Nothing but a poor attempt at creating FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). A clever marketing tactic if done well, but can easily backfire.
Bring on the SmartMeters, I would love to see a graph of my usage.
@Paul: Indeed. People will believe anything when it comes to science or technology, specially when someone purporting to be an expert blurts out a few “facts.” And yes, ATT, please bring in U-verse, otherwise Verizon may beat you to it and put in FiOS.
I’m all for the Smart Meters. I haven’t heard a single rational argument against them.
The SF Group of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club has recently taken a position calling on the SF Board of Supervisors to pass an ordinance banning the installation of ‘smart meters’ for one year. During that one year moratorium, the Sierra Club calls on the Board of Supervisors to hold hearings on the accuracy, safety, and energy-savings of these devices.
And when has the Sierra Club NOT said dumb or fatuous things?
Very disappointing on the part of the Sierra Club, IMO. Smart meters are one of the key early features of implementing a smart grid, which would allow small-scale renewables to really make a difference.
Sounds very much like the environmental movements of the past that overlooked the macro issues to focus on fairly insignificant micro issues. I’ve been a Sierra Club member and donor for a long time, so it’s time for me to do some investigation on why they’re supporting such a witch hunt.
I have been told that ‘smart meters’ are indeed in use in parts of Europe — but they are fiber, not wireless. The SF Group of the Sierra Club has called for a one-year moratorium during which time hearings can be held. That is not a witch hunt. That is good government.
I’m completely baffled at the concern of wireless of wired. These meters aren’t using some kind of special new wireless technology. The reasons that Europe has primarily chosen wired has more to do with existing setups and prior technology used, rather than some vague fear of wireless technology (think of it as a similar reason to why Europe uses 220 volt rather than 110 volt – neither is safer than the other, they’re simply different). Australia and New Zealand are using wireless technology identical to that being used in the US. Japan is using a combination of the two technologies, and there are likely many other places that will end up on the combined route.
I can completely understand the privacy concerns, but the health concerns are the very definition of a witch hunt.
The local Sierra Club position is cautious — it merely calls for a moratorium for one year in which hearings can be held to assess the safety and energy savings of wireless meters. One of the members of the local Sierra Club who was part of crafting the local Sierra Club position is a recently retired neuro-scientist, and she helped craft the policy.
It is good government to hold hearings, and it is good government to do so at the local level. See this story in the Bay Citizen on Friday. The CPUC has given PG&E two weeks to come up with an ‘opt-out’ program for customers who don’t want these meters.
http://www.baycitizen.org/pge/story/pge-customers-can-now-opt-out/1/
In the meantime, I look forward to hearings and finding out more. Will you follow the hearings, Chris?
I will follow the hearings.
I’m mostly concerned that pushing for these hearings in the first place plants erroneous information in the minds of many folks – the idea that we need a way for people to opt out for “safety” reasons creates the impression that some type of safety issue has already been determined, or at the very least someone feels that there is a strong chance that it could be. It would be like a company coming up with a new body soap that contains the identical ingredients to currently existing shampoo, but being forced to print labels saying that the product could be dangerous, because we haven’t determined what using even more soap will do.
Worst case scenario is that smart meters are not adopted by enough of the population to add the necessary “intelligence” to the overall system needed to usher in small-scale renewables and other general network efficiencies. Best care scenario is that these very positive environmental changes are pushed several years further down the road.
I’m all about good government, but it’s not clear to me that something that has been tested and tested and tested and tested and tested and tested by state and federal regulators (regulators with much better funding and staffing than local folks) and never found to have negative effects is something that we need to spend local funding/time on. Is the idea that somehow the NIH missed something in their countless RF and EMF studies that we’re going to find in a local hearing?
As I mentioned before, the privacy concerns are valid – and that’s something that I’m glad the ACLU has been investigating and is pushing the issue (on a national scale).
Full disclosure – my father is a former NIH researcher that participated in some of the first RF studies conducted in the 80’s.
They gave this non union, non sf company, keys to our home. Some of us that do not have a site window for pg&e to read the meters so they have a key to a garage or alley way door to check the meters. I asked the installer for my key and he refused so I refused the install and changed the lock.
The stop smartmeters site has a truly heroic level of specious reasoning and logical fallacies. After wading through the chest-beating and tinfoil-hat-crafting nonsense, their arguments seem to boil down to the following points:
1- Lab tests show smartmeters to be accurate, but they never tested them in their mesh network configuration!
Somebody doesn’t understand digital error correction. Also, you know those handheld doohickeys the current meter readers use? What do you think sends the data back to PG&E? Fairy kisses? No, it’s the EXACT SAME TECHNOLOGY that you don’t want them installing in your home. Except it emits a much stronger signal because it can’t utilize a low-power mesh network like smart meters do. Also, adding a human reader introduces more error potential – they could hit the wrong number on their keypad, or misread your meter. To summarize: the current system is more error-prone and exposes you to higher amounts of oh-so-scary radiation.
2- Smart meters violate my right to privacy! They’ll KNOW WHEN I WAKE UP!
Guess what – it’s already trivially easy to figure that out using a mechanical meter. Or by watching your house. Or asking you. And if you really believe the government is nefarious enough to care when you wake up (hint: they don’t. You’re not that important) do you think they won’t watch your house? Because it’s impolite?
3- Smart meter radiation bothers nearby wildlife!
The study they cite refers to the effect of cell towers on wildlife – the same towers that bear radiation warnings indicating that they exceed recommended radiation doses for humans. Radiation emitted by smart meters is much much much lower. Lower than the cell phone in your pocket. Lower than the radioactive isotope in your smoke detector. Both have been around for years and wildlife seems to be doing just fine.
4- Smart meters put meter readers out of jobs!
You and the buggy whip manufacturers should totally send an angry telegram about that.
5- The radiation hurts people with electromagnetic hypersensitivity and exceeds safety levels!
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity has been thoroughly debunked and is not recognized by any medical body anywhere.
The study they link to (or rather the page that dissects the study and cherry-picks the scariest parts) basically says that if all three antennas in the smartmeter are broadcasting simultaneously (which they don’t) at maximum power (which they won’t) and you apply an electromagnetic reflector to focus all the radiation (don’t do that) on your testicles or eyeballs (seriously, what?), that’s probably a bad idea. Well you’ve got me there, guys. If PG&E tries to install a testicular radiation concentrator on your smartmeter, you have my blessing to make a fuss.
But hey, keep worrying about it. To quote Patton Oswalt (who admittedly is talking about something different, but the sentiment still fits): “It’s just a way for them to keep us fighting over stuff that doesn’t matter, so they can screw us over on the real stuff like war and death and infinity.”
http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/03/pge-to-submit-smart-meter-opt-out-plan-today.php
I am an electricity broker in Texas, with thousands of clients — both commercial and residential.
One of my commercial clients had his analog meter replaced earlier this year with a new “smart” meter. The first few months went by without issue, but then suddenly his monthly usage jumped from an average of 5,500kwh to over 88,000kwh. The company that manages the new new smart meter, Oncor, came out and verified the reading and tested the meter. The testing showed the meter to be correct over 99% of the time. Because of this visit and testing, Oncor said the reading was correct.
Oncor was oblivious to the fact that it was practically impossible that a small office location of this size could use 88,000kwh in a single month. It’s more than their highest annual usage!
Because Oncor is a monopoly in this part of Texas (DFW area), their service department has no incentive to try to right an obvious wrong. After several weeks of getting nowhere, I began to call the local TV stations, and that finally got Oncor’s attention. The meter has now been replaced by another “smart” meter, and the client’s usage for the month in question is being set to equal the previous year’s usage for that month.
They said that although the meter is correct over 99% of the time, this meter evidently had some technical issues that caused the readings to jump dramatically.
Luckily, this error was obvious — at least to everyone except Oncor’s service department. What happens to those electricity users that have meters that cause the readings to jump in small increments? They are still paying for more electricity than they are using, but they have no way to prove it and no one that will listen to them.