Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Smart Grid: What is the Cost?
Right Side News ^ | 9/22/12 | Rick Haymow

Posted on 09/22/2012 8:55:27 AM PDT by RightSideNews

The “smart” grid: What’s really at stake?

Look at British Columbia: Around the globe, citizens of all walks of life are invited to realize that we’re all now on the playing field of a corporate control end-game. Through power grid modifications and smart meter installations, monopolistic forces are currently implementing a highly-hackable “smart” system of wireless utility metering, monitoring, selling private data, and control of life in citizens’ homes.

(Excerpt) Read more at rightsidenews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: agenda21; smartgrowth; smartmeter
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-52 next last

1 posted on 09/22/2012 8:55:32 AM PDT by RightSideNews
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews
"Smart grid" has UN Agenda 21 written all over it.

The goal of UN Agenda 21 is to abolish private property rights and impoverish and eventually starve anybody who is not a member of the global ruling-class so the global ruling-class can live in the Walden paradise that they deserve.

2 posted on 09/22/2012 9:00:13 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews

We have already decided to install an alternative electrical system.


3 posted on 09/22/2012 9:03:04 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews

Personally I like the monitoring aspect of “smart grid” technology - I’m able to see a real time use of electricity, and I don’t think I really care if someone sees my utility usage.

I do not want on the other hand, control or any restriction on my usage if I have the money to pay for it.


4 posted on 09/22/2012 9:08:40 AM PDT by mike_9958
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews
It's pretty clear this is a scare tactic without a whole lot of reality. Of the recently installed "smart meters" - abut 35 million across the United States, far less that 5% have "control" capability or bi-directional capability. The majority have the ability to send use to the utility with a guy walking or driving around to capture use. They can't control anything except to turn power off...which they had before.

I've seen a ton of hysteria about the smart grid which simply isn't true. It's main benefits are actually seen within the utility companies own infrastructure so they can be aware of constraints, outages, etc at their own transformers and substations.

And the reality of that is that the installations of that level are not prevalent. 40% of all power produced is lost through grid inefficiencies. The "smart grid" when it becomes reality will be used to reduce that.

If you want to be worried about anything, be worried about the reality of dynamic pricing or paying the TRUE price of energy without price controls that have been in pla for more than 20 years. Just go look at the real time pricing within PJM or other system operators.

5 posted on 09/22/2012 9:09:09 AM PDT by Solson (The Voters stole the election! And the establishment wants it back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews

The primary reason for installing a smart grid is so you can read the meters without sending guys around in trucks to do the job every month. And as long as you’re gathering the data, why not gather it real time, rather than once a month?

Her in Vermont, our electric cooperative is putting in smart meters, but NOT wireless, because their hippie customers would be up in arms if they did that, fearful that all that wireless stuff would rot their brains. (And who knows, maybe it would?)

Not really much different from having a cash machine to replace a teller.

Primary purpose, to save money. Secondary purpose, to give you a detailed picture of your electric use.


6 posted on 09/22/2012 9:26:38 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cicero

Oh, and also, in case of a power failure, it helps them to locate where the problem is a lot faster.


7 posted on 09/22/2012 9:27:13 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Solson
From what I've seen, my main concern is goblins hacking in and shutting down power at will. Why bomb the power plant when you can send malicious code from another country?

/johnny

8 posted on 09/22/2012 9:41:17 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: mike_9958

“I do not want on the other hand, control or any restriction on my usage if I have the money to pay for it”.

One of many reasons for smart grid tech. For our local coop, the ability to randomly shut customers down during high usage and thus high cost times should generate savings by shifting usage to low cost time of day versus high usage during high cost hours.

OTOH, if there was not a “war on coal” and other EPA stupidity, we wouldn’t have to worry about peak hours of usage for a while.


9 posted on 09/22/2012 9:42:35 AM PDT by wita
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Solson
"I've seen a ton of hysteria about the smart grid which simply isn't true."

You said it! Agenda 21 is a serious concern, but I can't figure out how it has been linked to smart meters. Pretty soon we'll have smart "everything", with sensors everywhere in our daily life and we'll have to deal with the security and privacy issues that go along with that. But a Luddite reaction to new technology just serves to undermine the attempts to stop Agenda 21.

10 posted on 09/22/2012 9:54:00 AM PDT by tentmaker (vote for John Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews

I refuse to allow them to put a smart meter on my house.

I dare them to cut my service when my bills are paid on time, too.

Never EVER buy any electric appliance that has an “energy star” rating, either. They’re all able to “phone home” to the electric company.


11 posted on 09/22/2012 10:07:30 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine ("On the ascent of Olympus, what's a botched bar or two?" -Artur Schnabel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews

Implementing a **highly-hackable** system of wireless utility metering, monitoring, selling private data, and control of life in citizens.

1984


12 posted on 09/22/2012 10:08:39 AM PDT by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wita

“For our local coop, the ability to randomly shut customers down during high usage and thus high cost times should generate savings”

I understand - but I’d rather control my energy usage during peak times rather than have it controlled for me. With smart grid tech they can bill me more at certain times of the day rather than shut me off.... my choice.


13 posted on 09/22/2012 10:27:27 AM PDT by mike_9958
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews; All
monopolistic forces are currently implementing a highly-hackable “smart” system of wireless utility metering, monitoring, selling private data, and control of life in citizens’ homes.

Sigh. Not this s**t again.

Look, I design wireless meter reading equipment and "smart meters" for a living. I hold a patent that is the basis for my company's "drive-by" system. I know a few things about them, OK?

They do not "control life" in citizens' homes. If you agree to have your pool pump or water heater shut down at peak demand times, you can always go and push the button and turn it back on. Demand response SAVES PEOPLE MONEY by avoiding power drain at peak times, when utilities have to bring expensive auxilliary generation on-line.

I guess you'd prefer rolling blackouts. Keep up the attacks on metering, and you'll have them soon enough.

These meters have so little memory in their little computers, there isn't room for surveillance or whatever you think they are doing. And if any of that kind of crap showed up at a software design review at my company, it would immediately be taken out, because that isn't the kind of junk we do.

And "smart grid" is just a method to re-route large electric transmission lines to meet demand and to overcome damage. If there was a severe solar storm, or God forbid, EMP, a "smart grid" might allow us to shut down in time to avoid damage.

And as to "hackable", I'd like to see any hacker try. Oh, wait, they did, and 256-bit AES encryption isn't breakable in a reasonable length of time. That's why the NSA and other government agencies use it for encryption of top-secret data.

I get so tired of these threads that bash American meter manufacturers who create thousands of high-tech jobs. There is plenty of Agenda 21 and other communist crap in government. Take the witch hunt ELSEWHERE.

14 posted on 09/22/2012 11:14:11 AM PDT by backwoods-engineer (My game is disruption. I will use lethal force --my vote-- in self-defense against Obama.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Emperor Palpatine
Never EVER buy any electric appliance that has an “energy star” rating, either. They’re all able to “phone home” to the electric company.

PROVE IT. Show me in the schematic of these appliance or in their firmware that they have a wired or wireless connection back to the utility company. You can't.

THAT IS A LIE, and you are scaring people by spreading it.

15 posted on 09/22/2012 11:18:16 AM PDT by backwoods-engineer (My game is disruption. I will use lethal force --my vote-- in self-defense against Obama.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: RightSideNews

Related article: “Risks of the Smart Grid”
http://tamarawilhite.hubpages.com/hub/Risks-of-the-Smart-Grid


16 posted on 09/22/2012 11:18:23 AM PDT by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mike_9958

“Personally I like the monitoring aspect of “smart grid” technology - I’m able to see a real time use of electricity, and I don’t think I really care if someone sees my utility usage.”

You’ll care when you find out your house was broken into during a vacation, because your ‘smart-meter’ ratted you out to a utility employee who told his not-so-honest buddy.


17 posted on 09/22/2012 11:55:54 AM PDT by BobL (You can live each day only once. You can waste a few, but don't waste too many.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Solson

“It’s pretty clear this is a scare tactic without a whole lot of reality.”

It’s ALWAYS easier to find out afterwards just what the implications of something is. That is the lazy way.

Yes, I have a smart meter. No, it doesn’t control my house. But yes, I may soon have pay HUGE AMOUNTS of money to operate my ac during the summer, during the hottest parts of the day, particularly if the wind isn’t blowing in West Texas.

You may want to next see what’s happening to appliances and other large power users. I value my privacy and ability to use my hardware when I want to without some ‘entity’ punishing me if I don’t do it by their rules - just like I value my freedom to drive when and where I want to, without some government person punishing me for driving at the wrong times, or on the wrong roads, by their standards...but I know that’s coming next.

It’s a shame others are so willing to simply give up their freedoms and privacy so easily.


18 posted on 09/22/2012 12:02:38 PM PDT by BobL (You can live each day only once. You can waste a few, but don't waste too many.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Emperor Palpatine

“Never EVER buy any electric appliance that has an “energy star” rating, either. They’re all able to “phone home” to the electric company.”

I don’t believe that’s the case now...but it will be soon. It won’t just be “Energy Star” it will be everything.


19 posted on 09/22/2012 12:04:42 PM PDT by BobL (You can live each day only once. You can waste a few, but don't waste too many.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: backwoods-engineer

“I guess you’d prefer rolling blackouts. Keep up the attacks on metering, and you’ll have them soon enough. “

Some of us prefer SUFFICIENT CAPACITY. But there is another story about 200 coal plants being shutdown. Yes, we can shut them down, as long as we control when people use power.

You may like that, being an insider and lining your wallet with it, but most people that I know don’t.


20 posted on 09/22/2012 12:06:59 PM PDT by BobL (You can live each day only once. You can waste a few, but don't waste too many.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-52 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson