People have been burned so many times by corporations lying to them they are reacting to electrical smart meters as if there were some sort of bugging scheme. These new meters will eventually allow environmentally friendly things such as:

• Giving you a cheaper rate on electricity if you use it outside peak hours.
• Automatically turning off optional devices like hot water heaters during peak hours.
• By reducing peak usage, the electric utility can delay or avoid building new coal, oil, gas power plants or damning new rivers saving both money and the environment.
• Reading your meter without having to send out a service man in a truck, especially convenient where one tenant is moving out and another moving in.
• The electric company knows precisely which premises have power and the quality of that power without having to wait for telephone complaints.

The electrical system is vulnerable during peak hours since there is so little spare capacity. Even a small disturbance can bring down the whole thing as happened on 2011-09-08 in Arizona. I consider it a serious ecological crime to spread misinformation about these meters. This is one of the rare times when a technology is both profitable for the electric utilities and good for the environment.

~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)