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You say Smartgrid, I Say Intrusive

I have had an ongoing discussion with several people who have advocated for the smartgrid technology, while I have had many reservations, especially since it appears that this technology will attempt to alter your consumption habits whether you want to or not. This limits freedom of choice, and is but one manifestation of how the government believes it knows what is best for you than you yourself do. Incredible. They can’t chew gum and walk at the same time and they want to tell us how to act?

In the newest issue of my Electrical Co-op magazine, (I live in the country, hence the Co-op), which is intended to educate the consumer, the author expounds on the new “smart house”- the house that communicates with the power plant, ostensibly to exchange information about electrical usage. There is a problem in River City with this scenario, however.

The “smart” grid, which is in constant communication with your electrical generator, can accurately predict if the system is approaching peak capacity. The grid informs your distribution co-op about unusually high energy usage.

By prior arrangement, has provided you with a programmable thermostat  with the understanding that the co-op can take control of the system and cycle it on and off for short periods on very hot or cold days.

Texas Co-op Power, June 2009

Wow- it’s so wonderful that my government takes such an intrusive interest in my life that it knows just how hot or cold I need to be, or, more to the point, want to be. But wait- there’s more!

You can, in this smart” house, have a refrigerator, washer, dryer, and dishwasher who will tell you when you may do the chores. If you choose to do the chores on your schedule, you will have to override the “high- tariff” warnings that will blink on their electronic readouts.

That has a chilling effect on me- “high- tariff”- this means in addition to the regular price you pay for your electricity, now you will have a “punishment” payment, in effect, a tax on your”excessive” usage. If you do not use the electricity that you pay for in a way the government approves of, you will have to pay more money, on top of the rates you already pay. 

Does anyone other than me believe this is an intrusion into our Right to privacy? The government doesn’t need to know anything about when I wash my clothes, or turn the thermostat lower, as long as I pay my bill. The government doesn’t need to be in the power business- private markets should take care of this need. What the government wants is a source of data- mining, where the government collects information on its citizens and then sifts through it for what it might consider useful. That is a Constitutional No-No.

FERC (Federal  Energy Regulatory Commission) has looked to the Electrical Co-ops to take the lead in this smart technology, and admittedly, even now, there’s just 16% of the Co-ops who have this technology, but you can believe that this will snowball in a hurry, as the socialists in the government want to know all they can so they can control you all they can, because after all, they know what’s best for you.

The FERC defines “advanced metering” as a system that records customer consumption on at least an hourly basis and provides at least a daily transmittal of measurements over a communications network to a central collection point.

Texas Co-op Power, June 2009

This is a path we should tread with extreme care- our right to privacy is in peril, and for those who do not believe this, remember one thing- change is incremental, and what seems like a little thing now can be used as precedent, and enable the next step to be taken with less outrage. 

The government does not need to know any of this information, and certainly should not be telling us how to live our lives- if we want to turn the thermostat lower, or wash our dishes at an odd time, that should be our business, and we should not be penalized for this. Not everyone lives their lives like everyone else, and to use a “tariff” to punish any power usage different from what the government considers the “norm” is punitive and excessive, and possibly unconstitutional.

But we have come to expect unconstitutional behavior from this administration.
Blake
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