Smart meters offer benefits to both utilities and utility customers, but they also face skepticism and anxieties from critics. A recent court decision in Maine, protesters in Texas and a report concerning radio-frequency worries showed that not everyone is sold on the devices.
Utility Dive also posted a list of five advantages provided by smart meters today, but below are a few of the smart meter worries that still need to be addressed. It should be noted that in many cases these anxieties represent symptoms that have not been conclusively linked to smart meters, but even without clear evidence, those instances of fear can present utilities with customer service, public relations and regulatory issues.
1. The benefits of smart meters come at a huge expense.
Having a smart meter installed, changing consumption habits according to existing usage patterns and effectively monitoring smart meter data all come at a price. An article from Consumers Digest points out that information received through the smart meter can only be analyzed in a beneficial way by buying additional monitoring equipment. As utility companies continue to price according to consumption patterns, it will become increasingly important to track one’s own energy data and spend more money on extra tools to do so.
2. Smart meters are perceived by some as a potential health hazard.
The EMF Safety Network compiled a list of health hazard complaints made in reference to radio waves given off by smart meters. Based on the reports of smart meter customers, the extensive list includes ailments such as insomnia, heart palpitations, nausea, skin rashes, respiratory problems and seizures. The issue of smart meters and health has been recently brought up in Maine, where a court ruled that health issues regarding smart meters have yet to be resolved.
3. Privacy concerns regarding the collection of personal energy consumption data.
According to an article in the Guardian, concerns have been raised over the possibility of ulterior motives in the collecting of personal energy consumption data by utility companies. Information regarding the types of devices people use and the time they use them could potentially be passed on to third parties for the purpose of targeting consumers for advertising. This worry led to the suggestion by the European Data Protection Supervisor to set controls on the frequency of utility data collection.
4. Utility companies will try to installing smart meters against the will of their customers.
In some cases, utility companies may be replacing analog meters with smart meters by default, and unless customers take action, they will be powerless to prevent them from doing so. The activist group Stop Smart Meters! condemns utility companies for aggressive tactics, criticizing what they deem to be unfair opt-out offers and asserting the right of customers to defend analog meters. The group claims that the federal mandate to upgrade utility meters does not require companies to make the switch over but simply to present smart meters as an option.
5. The amount of data collected by smart meters could be too much for the utility companies to analyze.
A recent analysis of an Oracle report on the New York Times Green Blog reveals a large discrepancy between the amount of energy consumption data and the amount of such data that is actually used. Since new data is reported every few hours (as opposed to a monthly rate), utility companies struggle to keep up with the constant stream of information. According to the Oracle survey, 45% of utility executives found it hard to direct information to the proper managers. This has caused customers to complain, saying that the accuracy of the smart meter readings is unreliable.
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