It has been over 10 months since my organization, Maryland Smart Meter Awareness (MSMA), began a concerted effort to educate the Jewish community in Baltimore about the problems with smart meters. Since that time, a great deal has happened. Most significantly, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) issued its final decision allowing Maryland ratepayers to opt out of receiving a smart meter and to instead keep their analog electric meters. This was a major victory, as initially the PSC was opposed to allowing opt-outs regardless of the adverse health impacts and privacy violations. It took a concerted effort by MSMA and some of our legislators (most notably Senator Delores Kelley of Baltimore County and Delegate Glen Glass of Harford County) to address smart meter problems and give these issues the attention they deserved. In response, over 40,000 Maryland residents requested a deferral from a smart meter. All these efforts help convince the PSC that this was a serious issue.
The bad news, is that the PSC authorized the utilities to charge an upfront fee of $75, payable in three installments, starting July 2014, and an additional $11to $17 per month, also starting July 2014, for customers who choose to opt out.
Loss of Choice
While MSMA is certainly grateful that the PSC granted a permanent opt-out, the fees greatly undermine public choice. Many people who, for reasons of health, privacy or safety, would prefer to keep their analog meter, will now be forced to accept a smart meter if they cannot afford these fees. For a lower income customer who may be facing health challenges, these fees present a disturbing predicament, forcing such a customer to choose between health and having enough food on the table.
Unjustified and Unfair Fees
The harsh reality is that the PSC and the utilities have failed to justify the fees. The cost proposals submitted to the PSC by the utilities last summer contained costs that were clearly inappropriate, speculative, and in total conflict with the actual expenses for implementing an opt-out program. In addition, the utilities failed to give opt out customers any credit for savings that would accrue to the utilities for customers keeping their analog meters.
MSMA brought these serious problems with those cost proposals to the attention of the PSC. We submitted extensive written comments, and we testified before the PSC at a hearing last August. In my testimony, I stated that there was insufficient information in the record for the PSC to make any decision on opt-out fees.
Instead, the PSC ignored these problems and decided to authorize each utility to impose fees for customers who wanted to opt out. But not only did the PSC come up with these unjustified fees for opting out, the PSC stated that it is going to make every opt-out customer pay for the smart meter program even though they do not want a smart meter. So opt-out customers will in effect be double charged: once for opt-out fees, and then again for the smart meter program that they do not want. This will occur once the PSC approves rate increases to cover the cost of the smart meter program. In essence, these fees are really “protection money” opt-out customers are paying the utilities to be left alone.
Increased Bills
But accepting a smart meter may not necessarily help ratepayers keep energy bills down. Many ratepayers with a smart meter have found that their bills have increased dramatically, far beyond the cost of any opt-out fee. MSMA sent a Maryland Public Information Act request to the PSC asking for information about smart meter complaints. The PSC furnished information only on email complaints from January through November of 2013. It omitted all oral and regular mail complaints because of the large amount of redacting that would be needed for these. But of the over 1,500 complaints we did receive, over 80 were just on overcharging. In some cases, bills doubled or tripled. Here is a sampling of a three such complaints, summarized. (The number associated with each complaint was assigned by the PSC):
- #541: The customer sent a deferral notice by registered mail to the utility, but it was ignored and a smart meter was installed without the customer’s knowledge. After several months of extraordinarily high bills, the customer discovered that a smart meter had been installed.
- #678: The customer complained of astronomically higher bills after the smart meter was installed. The utility representative said they have no way to check the accuracy of the meter. The utility customer service representative admitted that he had been getting many calls from other customers regarding increased bills.
- #856: After getting a smart meter, the customer received a bill for $1,665. It took six months for a utility technician to come out and check his meter. The customer was told that the meter was reading accurately and that smart meters are “never wrong.”
So it is not at all clear that accepting a smart meter will ensure lower bills.
Adverse Health Effects
Regardless of the fees, the health threats posed by smart meters remain. Well over a thousand peer-reviewed biomedical research studies have shown adverse biological effects from non-ionizing radiation, the type smart meters use. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine, the organization that trains doctors for board certification in environmental medicine, is now calling for a halt to all smart meter installations. Yet remarkably, the utilities have never conducted any studies on the health effects of smart meters. Opting out can definitely help reduce the exposure in one’s own home. But for someone who spends extended periods of time in another setting, such as a business, school, or day care, you should determine with management and/or the school’s principal whether that particular establishment has opted out. This is particularly important for children and teenagers as they are much more vulnerable to health effects from microwave radiation than adults.
Privacy Invasions
For anyone accepting a smart meter, privacy invasions are still a concern, as energy readings every 15 minutes allow for the utilities to amass, use, store, and sell mammoth amounts of personal data. Ultimately, when smart meters start communicating with each of our major appliances, we will be handing over to our utility the power to remotely control our appliances. While the utilities will tell you that they have no current plans to do such a thing, we are giving them that power. And when a business or government agency has the power to do something, it is only a question of time before it ultimately uses that power. This is not just a question of managing energy, as the utilities stand to save a fortune by reducing energy use on hot day. Thus we may find the utilities powering down ovens and stoves that they felt have been left on too long. That would be a real problem for those of us depending on our cooking appliances for a Shabbos or Yom Tov meal.
Appliance Damage and Fires
Many customers with smart meters are experiencing damage to appliances, and there have been hundreds of smart meter fires country-wide. While Underwriters Laboratories (UL) recently certified two of the many smart meter designs, none of the designs being used in Maryland are currently UL certified. To make matters worse, the utilities will generally not take responsibility for damaged appliances or fires. Thus, if an appliance is out of warranty, the homeowner will be the one footing the repair bill or replacing the appliance. Homeowners or renters insurance may cover some of the expense, but there is usually a substantial deductible ($500 to $1,000 per incident) that may make this impractical. In regard to fires, at this point it looks like the insurance companies will cover the damage caused by a smart meter. You may want to contact your insurance agent to see if the policy would cover such damage.
Looking Ahead
The good news is that this is not the end of the story on opt-out fees. We will have another opportunity in the upcoming legislative session to address this issue. And at that time, we expect to have a lot of irate Maryland residents joining in our efforts. In the meantime, we encourage you to opt-out of a smart meter installation if at all possible – even with these unfair and unjustified fees. And, of course, we encourage everyone to work with business owners, schools, and day care centers to protect yourself and your family members from exposure to radiation while they are working or at school.
Jonathan D. Libber is president of Maryland Smart Meter Awareness.
