PORT TOWNSEND — While some say that new electrical meters the Jefferson County Public Utility District plans to install for customers next year are potential health hazards, PUD officials say they are safe and represent an upgrade that will save money and reduce the utility’s carbon footprint.
Both groups will outline their thinking later this month.
The Smart Meter Objectors Group (SMOG) called for a moratorium on the new meters, citing a potential of health risks, fire danger and vulnerability to hacking.
“Most people we’ve spoken to don’t know what a smart meter is,” group member Ana Wolpin said. “They haven’t heard of the rollout. It’s been under the radar.”
In a press release dated Oct. 11, SMOG said the new meters, touted by the PUD as part of its plan to modernize infrastructure, could lead to problems ranging from higher utility bills to headaches and dizziness.
Noting that other communities, including Port Angeles in 2013, have elected not to use smart meters, SMOG also raises the possibility of the devices serving as a conduit for invasions of privacy.
According to the release, “Smart meters have the ability to communicate with all ‘smart’ appliances, transmit data that shows if you are home, how and when you use power, and allow two-way communication that can remotely control your energy use. The data collected is being sold to third parties.”
PUD communications manager Will O’Donnell prefers to call the new devices “advanced” meters and said many of the concerns voiced by SMOG have no basis.
“There is no electric danger,” he said.
The advanced meters would not be inside customers’ houses, would give the PUD no personal information about customers and would not communicate with any home appliances, O’Donnell said.
“These don’t work that way,” he said. “Our meter only transmits the usage data that’s collected out to us.”
SMOG will present a free screening of the 2013 anti-smart meter documentary “Take Back Your Power” at 7 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Port Townsend Community Center, 620 Tyler St. An open discussion will take place after the film.
O’Donnell said the PUD will hold a “special meeting for the purpose of discussing new meter installation” at 5 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Chimacum Fire Hall, 9193 Rhody Drive in Chimacum. Members of the public are invited to participate.
SMOG members voiced their concerns at the Sept. 5 meeting of the PUD commissioners, but they said they think the utility needs to communicate more with the public.
“We are engaged with them to the degree that they’ll participate,” Wolpin said.
While praising PUD Board President Ken Collins for his efforts to respond to SMOG, Wolpin said most of the group’s questions have gone unanswered.
“There’s been hardly any outreach by the PUD,” SMOG member Sebastian Eggert said. “One would think the PUD would want to know what their constituents would be interested in.”
Eggert said different PUD officials have given out conflicting information about the new meter installation, and he worries the company is not prepared to make a good decision about what equipment to buy.
In a March interview with the Peninsula Daily News, then-PUD General Manager Jim Parker said installation of the new devices would begin by the end of this year. He expected it to take about four years to replace the company’s 16,000 meters.
That installation is now set to begin in January, according to O’Donnell, following a decision by the PUD to begin buying the new meters in December.
Echoing Parker’s earlier statements, O’Donnell noted the new equipment’s advantages and the need to replace the current “hodgepodge system of analog and digital meters” in various conditions that the PUD inherited from its predecessor company in 2013.
He said the old meters come with a contract with Landis and Gyr Meters that costs the PUD more than $300,000 per year for data collection. He said many water meters in Jefferson County work the same way and the company would love to be free of the expense.
O’Donnell said that besides saving that money outright, the advanced meters’ communication ability would allow the utility to quickly identify and fix outages, without a call from the customer. Also, the PUD would reduce its carbon footprint because no one would have to drive around the service area to collect data.
Collins said the board will use the Oct. 30 meeting to explain their reasons for getting new meters and hear customers’ concerns. He acknowledged the potential exists for halting installation if a large enough proportion of customers want that.
But in any case, the PUD will offer a cost-based opt-out alternative for customers still not comfortable with the advanced meters, Collins said.
“It would not be punitive,” he said. “We would charge them what it costs [for us] to put in the extra effort.”
________
Drew Herman can be reached at dherman@soundpublishing.com or 360-452-2345.
