Note to Readers: This article contains references to several websites for additional information. Active links (click on the link and go to the site) to these sites are available in the Newsletter posted on http://west-win.home.comcast.net/~west-win/, West-Win’s website. The links eliminate the need to type the site names into the address line of your browser, but that tactic will also work.
There is a rampant flood of misinformation circulating about electrical (and soon gas) smart meters. A number of these issues are discussed below (see the “Scuttlebutt” section), along with references. By way of a quick summary, however, smart meters are quite safe, do not invade your privacy, and are more likely to prevent a fire than to cause one. First, however, a perspective of the bigger picture is needed to see how smart meters fit in.
THE SMART GRID
The issue of Smart Electrical meters is part of the larger issue of the Electrical Smart Grid. For very good reasons, this is taking place all over the world, not just locally. While a number of factors such as electrical system reliability, efficiency, and cost to the consumer are involved, as well as the coming trend toward electric vehicles, the biggest change for consumers is that we can now save money by participating in the electricity market. We’ve long been doing that in food and merchandise retailing. At the supermarket you will either be aware of, and respond to, market conditions, or you will pay a higher price for buying what you want when you want it regardless of price. You save money by buying things on sale and avoiding things that are priced too high.
In the case of electricity the price varies minute by minute all through the day, just like the stock market, though much more predictably. When the demand is high, during the day and early evening, the price is high. But at night, the price can be extremely low. If we are in a hot spell with all our air conditioners running, power companies have to bring on line older, less efficient generating plants, or buy power from distant locations (at higher prices because of transmission losses along the way), or from “Peaker Plants,” like the one on Eola Road in Warrenville, IL. That plant sits idle most of the time, but, when the electrical demand exceeds the power company’s generating capacity, it fires up and can sell power into the grid at extravagant rates.
So part of what the “Smart Grid” is bringing to us is involvement in the electrical market via a new range of billing options termed “Residential Real Time Pricing”, coupled with hour by hour measurement of our usage by smart meters. But each meter is also a communications device that is part of an internet-like network that transmits usage information back to the power company. So, no more meter readers coming around to your house, and resultant power company savings will be reflected in your electric rates.
Electrical billing has long been at a “Flat Rate”. That equates to using power when you want to regardless of momentary price, and this will continue to be an option whether your usage is billed by ComEd or by an aggregator chosen by your community. BTW, a chart of the aggregation rates paid in each town or township is available at http://www.pluginillinois.org/MunicipalAggregationList.aspx. Generally speaking, if your usage pattern is inflexible, with your usage generally during peak hours, this is still the way to go. However, if you can modify your usage by running appliances (or charging your new electric car) more at night when costs are low, a Real Time Pricing option should be better.
Service will improve as the system evolves. Power failures will be fewer, but if a storm or accident does take out your power you will NOT have to report it. Due to the communications capability of the network, the power company will immediately know who has lost power, and from the outage pattern will be able to more quickly locate the problem and fix it.
You will have the ability (only if you choose) to monitor your own electrical usage pattern to save money by the timing of your usage. It will be available on the internet for you and, if you want, you can buy a display device for your home that is wirelessly updated by your smart meter. That can tell you not only how much electricity you have used in each hour, but how much specific appliances use. And (again only if you choose) you will be able have some of your appliances automatically regulated to use electrical power only during times of the day when rates are lower. Actually, this has long been done with electric water heaters.
It is also true that the power company will be able shut off power to individual homes remotely. That can be because you are way behind on paying your bill. But it can also be at the request of the homeowner during sale of the home. If a tornado strike damages both natural gas pipes and electrical power lines in a home, automatic power shutoff can reduce the chance that sparks will ignite the gas.
Another new wrinkle in the electric supply picture relates to the increasing generation of “Green” power – that from natural sources like windmills and solar panels. These sources are characteristically intermittent and weather dependent. More people are joining the ranks of those who own such generation capability because now smart meters support that – they can measure “negative” usage as well as positive. So those who are generating more power than they are using get paid at the going rate while this occurs.
One of the philosophies of the Smart Grid is to evolve toward “distributed electrical generation” which specifically means to include a wide range of companies and homeowners who send power into the grid. This is intended to provide much greater resiliency to damage of part of the grid from a major storm, major solar flare, or even enemy attack.
Viewing the electric grid more globally, note that your bill consists of three separate sections:
• Electrical Supply includes the charges for the actual electricity from power plants that you are consuming.
• Transmission Service is the charge for the transport of that electricity from the generation source to the local distribution system over High Voltage transmission lines.
• Distribution Service includes the charges for delivering the electricity to your home or business by power companies like ComEd.
These portions represent three physically separate portions of the grid, each of which will be more effectively managed and maintained by the Smart Grid. New equipment is being mounted on the transmission towers, and in local distribution points, that measure electrical current, voltage, power factor and other characteristics that can be adjusted for keeping transmission efficiency up, and your costs down. They will also detect incipient problems and improve reliability.
SOME MORE INFO:
• Start with: https://smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid. This gives an overview of the smart grid in simple terms.
• Then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_meter
SCUTTLEBUTT: Misinformation being circulated about smart meters:
Rumor: Smart meters emit dangerous levels of RF (Radio Frequency) radiation.
The facts: The exposure that you get from radiation depends on its strength and the total time you are exposed to it. The distance you are from the source is a strong factor, as is any shielding from materials between you and the source. The smart meter radiates one watt of power and transmits a total of about five minutes a day. It is located a number of feet away from you, and is separated by one or more walls of your house that provide some shielding. Your cell phone radiates up to one-half watt, but is located right next to your ear. Further, typical daily talk times greatly exceed five minutes a day. Nevertheless, numerous studies have found cell phones to be safe because they operate at very low frequencies compared to the ionizing (cell damaging) frequencies of ultraviolet or x-ray radiation. In summary, you get more damaging radiation from standing in direct sunlight than you do from your cell phone, and the phone greatly exceeds what you get from a smart meter that is far from your head.
See http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/emf/ and https://www.comed.com/Documents/newsroom/Grid_Mod_Fact_Sheet_RF_2013.pdf scroll down to the RF Emissions Comparison chart.
Rumor: Smart Meters start fires
The facts: Fires at meters are usually caused by old and corroded wiring. As crews install the new meters they clean up and repair degraded connection points and so help prevent future fires.
Rumor: Smart meters interfere with garage door openers.
The facts: In the pilot program of 30,000 homes two cases were found of openers that operated at conflicting frequencies, which were fixed by shifting the opener to a different frequency. On the other hand, there are many cases where people have installed new LED lighting (typically in the kitchen) which did interfere with garage door openers. All house-powered LEDs use electronic circuits to convert the high voltage AC to the low voltage DC required by the LED itself. Some brands produce a lot of RF interference. One brand having very low interference is Halo.
Rumor: Smart meters represent an invasion of privacy, and burglars can identify when people aren’t home by seeing low power usage.
The facts: No personally identifiable information is transmitted by smart meters (and what is transmitted is encrypted). The power usage information goes only to the power company.