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Anti-Meter Fever Strikes Australia Too By SGN Staff Feb 24, 2010 - 12:48:48 PM
By Doug Peeples SGN News Editor . While it probably doesn't make anyone feel better, we aren't the only country where smart meters have a PR problem. Residents of Victoria, Australia's smallest state, are up in arms about what they see as overcharges on their utility bills and concerns about the data intelligent meters can collect. Utilities, consumer groups and state government are getting together to talk it out, but considering our own experiences, that's no assurance the problem will be resolved.
The controversy and hot tempers over smart meter rollouts in the U.S. are also erupting in Australia. Some utility customers in Victoria have gone so far as to padlock their electric meters to block installation of the new meters.
The small but populous southeastern state took a leadership role in smart meter deployments intended to give consumers and utilities detailed reports of energy use throughout the day — and to save billions in spending on infrastructure, prolong the life cycle existing equipment and shoring up the electric grid by charging the actual cost of electricity.
While the smart meters are an essential component of a Smart Grid, in Victoria they've ignited public resentment to a rolling boil. Apparently, someone forgot to tell consumers about the new technology and what it would mean to them before the rollout of 2.4 million meters began.
Negative media coverage has been routine as consumer groups highlight and publicize problems that time-of-use rate structures cause low-income families or shut-ins who can't readily adapt their consumption to cut energy costs.
State governments have been working toward a national law to help protect those customers. But the law isn't expected to be passed until the middle of next year, if then, and consumer groups don't have much good to say about what they're seeing.
Janine Rayner, senior policy officer for the Consumer Action Law Centre, was quoted in iTnews as saying she was concerned that the law has been weakened by compromise and that data protection is a major issue.
"Consumer and welfare organizations around Australia are contributing; we're pushing for the consumer voice to be heard in the law because the national law is pretty dumbed down. We're now advocating for it to be clearly outlined in regulatory tools in Victoria that the data belongs to consumers," Rayner said.
She said that without those protections, utilities could charge customers for access to their energy use information which, of course, would defeat the purpose.
But that's not all there is to it...
So, low-income families are jeopardized. Data protection is a big issue. There's also the painfully obvious: It looks like there wasn't much of an attempt to educate consumers before the meter rollout began. And the media coverage of irate customers and the effects of higher rates on the poor is so intense that no sane spin doctor would touch it.
There's more. Australia's iTnews, a business publication, says the utility/government/consumer working group agreed that it's the government's responsibility, or the responsibility of government and industry, to come up with a media and consumer education campaign.
But industry representatives said the government and utilities were "gridlocked about who was responsible" until recently. Now, it looks like both government and industry are backpedaling and making a determined effort to try to counter the effects of bad press and their own finger pointing.
But you gotta ask: Too little too late?
From the source ...
Related SGN resources ...
Smart Meter Paranoia: Could a Simple Toggle Switch or Software Fix Solve It?
Just Say 'Hell No' to Smart Meters, Urges CA Consumer Advocate
Blowback Attack: The Smart Grid’s Greatest Danger?
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Smart Grid Newsletter (SGN) is the insider's guide to the Smart Grid revolution. It consists of a FREE bi-monthly email summary, along with a companion Web site that contains the full stories and other helpful materials. Benefits of subscribing: SGN is the only central source for all of the news, trends, research and marketplace information relevant to grid automation. In it, you will read about cutting edge technologies; successful pioneers and how they got ahead; regulatory changes that could unleash new markets; the latest research; and new opportunities for sales of grid-related products and services. © Copyright 2009 SmartGridNews.com |