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Friday, May 11, 2018

Smart electricity meters might become optional by Elizabeth Souder from Dallas News

 

Smart electricity meters might become optional



Profile image for Elizabeth Souder
Elizabeth Souder from Dallas News
For anyone concerned that the new, digital electrical meters are unhealthy, expose customer data to computer hackers and terrorists, or give the government a tool of control, there’s hope. You might not have to get a smart meter after all.
The Public Utility Commission is considering allowing people to opt out of a program to update nearly every mechanical meter in Texas with a digital one, called a smart meter.

Already a key lawmaker has threatened to propose legislation requiring utilities to allow customers to decline a smart meter, unless the commission creates a way for people to opt out pronto.
“I am greatly concerned that the installation of smart meters has gone beyond the purview of the law by forcing them on consumers,” Sen. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, said in a letter to commissioners. Bonnen wrote the legislation that required the commission to deploy smart meters, but not necessarily to every single home.
Some electricity customers worry the digital meters, which use wireless technology to communicate customer data to the utility, create serious problems. People with health issues sometimes say the radio frequency from the meters makes their conditions much worse.
Cybersecurity experts warn that the meter system is vulnerable to hackers searching for personal information about customers or seeking the thrill of shutting down parts of the grid. Hundreds of Texans have written to the PUC asking to opt out.
Oncor, the power line utility that is installing the meters in North Texas, says smart meters emit less radio frequency than mobile phones, and the company uses the same security measures to protect its computers as banks use. Using a smartphone to check your bank balance is riskier than living with a smart meter.
High-tech benefits
The idea behind Bonnen’s 2005 legislation was to install a high-tech system that can detect outages immediately and collect usage information throughout the day so that, eventually, customers can cut back when wholesale power prices spike. If people can shift some electricity use to times of day when wholesale power is cheap, such as at night, Texas wouldn’t need so many power plants to meet monster afternoon demand, and wholesale prices could ease.
The PUC chose to make the program mandatory because it is cheaper and more efficient than keeping some people on the old system.
The commission opened a project to collect comments on a possible opt-out program. Comments are due June 18. PUC spokesman Terry Hadley said the commissioners will then decide whether to begin the process of changing the rules to allow people to opt out. That process can take months.
If commissioners consider changing the rule, they will have to decide who pays. Manual meters must be read each month by a human, while the digital meters transmit readings to Oncor automatically. The commission would have to decide whether the costs of keeping old meters will be spread among all customers or borne by those consumers who opt out.
Utilities have installed smart meters for about 82 percent of customers in deregulated areas of the state.
Oncor spokesman Chris Schein said the meters are allowing the utility to respond to outages faster. He said for the months of March, April and May, Oncor received 4,000 notifications of outages from smart meters. About 1,000 of those customers didn’t report the outage, which tells Schein those customers probably didn’t even know their lights went out before they came back on.
Health concerns
The benefits come with risks that some customers aren’t willing to accept.
“Because you don’t have a choice, it’s hard to protect yourself,” said Beth Biesel, a University Park resident who organizes neighborhood meetings to oppose meter installations.
The World Health Organization classified radio frequency electromagnetic fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The American Cancer Society said WHO’s classification means there could be a risk of cancer, “but the evidence is not strong enough to be considered causal and needs to be investigated further.”
Tracy Stephens, who lives in Hurst, said her 6-year-old daughter Megan, who has autism and a number of gastrointestinal problems, is extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields and radio frequencies emitted by wireless devices, such as the meter.
On the day Oncor contractors installed smart meters in the neighborhood, Megan began having seizures, Stephens said.
“I lost her for eight hours,” she said. When a technician turned down the radio frequency of nearby meters, “All of a sudden there she was, she was back with eye contact.”
The girl’s pediatrician, Pierre Robert of Grapevine Pediatric Clinic, agrees with the mother and wrote a letter to Oncor requesting that the utility omit Megan’s house from the meter upgrade project because the girl is “highly sensitive” to the meters, “which have already triggered multiple, documented seizures.”
Stephens shared the letter with The Dallas Morning News, but she hasn’t sent it to Oncor.
Oncor spokesman Schein said the company has turned down the radio frequency on meters near Stephens’ house and the home of her ex-husband. Unless the PUC creates an opt-out program, Schein said, she will need a digital meter.
A further concern is the security of Oncor’s computer system. What if electricity usage data falls into the wrong hands or a hacker turns off power to certain areas?
“The main concern today is, because of all the malware out there, it can get into the system and cause havoc with the system,” said Bhavani Thuraisingham, executive director of the Cyber Security Research and Education Center at the University of Texas at Dallas.
She said a good student hacker could probably penetrate a smart network, but that doesn’t mean Texas should spike the plan. Oncor must have systems to prevent attacks and to detect right away when the system has been hacked.
Oncor hired IBM to handle smart meter security. IBM spokeswoman Fabienne Guidhary said the company does similar work for health care companies, retailers and banks. IBM encrypts the usage data for Oncor, creates security zones that won’t accept outside information other than meter usage data, and hires third parties to test the system by trying to hack in.
Some retail electric providers give customers discounts if they volunteer to allow the retailer to cut back household usage during grid emergencies. With a few technology upgrades, a retailer can turn down a customer’s air conditioning remotely, or even manage other appliances, without much discomfort for the customer.
This technology worries some people. If TXU Energy can turn up the thermostat for volunteers during grid emergencies, what is stopping TXU, or Oncor, or the government, or the United Nations, from controlling our electricity use all the time?
“Knowing what appliances I’m using in my home is a violation of the Fourth Amendment,” said Biesel, the University Park resident, referring to the prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. “It’s a control thing. It’s an invasion of private property.”
But the thermostat control programs are strictly voluntary, and Oncor has always had the ability to shut customers off during a grid emergency.
As for concerns that digital meters cede control of our grid to an international body, it’s tough to find evidence to support this concern.
“The United Nations is not involved with the smart meters being used in Texas,” U.N. spokesman Daniel Dickinson said in an email.

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