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What is Smart Meter?
A smart meter is a digital electric meter. It collects usage information every 30 minutes and sends that information to ComEd through a secure telecommunications connection.
If you haven't been paying attention to the charges on your ComEd bill you should start watching them now.
It turns out that ComEd went to the Illinois Commerce Commission [ICC] in 2008 begging for more money from ratepayers - those suckers who are forced to purchase power from ComEd because we have no other sources for electricity at this time.
As part of the final agreement in that rate case, the ICC “gave ComEd permission” to implement an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) pilot. AMI meters, also known as “smart meters,” are an essential building block in the development of Smart Grid technologies, which are vital to addressing climate change, spurring economic development, improving electrical system reliability and managing energy use more effectively.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the deployment of smart meters. When fully deployed, and in conjunction with a full "smart grid," they will, if properly deployed and well thought out, provide a part in the key to a more reliable, stable, safer, more secure and more efficient energy grid for all of us - throughout both the United States and, eventually, the world.
Smart Meters have several advantages for both parties:
For the consumer: smart meters will allow us to monitor our electricity utilization, make adjustments in that consumption so we can both lower our bills and, when the mandate comes to use usage sensitive pricing – in the not too distant future I suspect – control our use during peak periods so we don’t end up paying more to the electric company than we pay to the crooks in Chicago and Cook County government on our property tax bills.
Under both a ComEd program and a program instituted by Google, ComEd’s smart meter program will allow us, the consumer, to chart our consumption by accessing either a ComEd supplied device [available to limited households under the pilot program]; via the ComEd website – when it’s is not locking your account out because you have made “too many attempts to login within the last half hour, even though you have not attempts to login at all within the past 10 days; and via a Google pilot program which will collect aggregate data on the whole and make specific data available to users who sign up to meter and measure their data.
Smart Meters will eventually be able to communicate directly with smart appliances and help consumers lower their electric bills by running energy hogging appliances like dishwashers washing machines and electric dryers during non-peak electrical periods and, if demand sensitive metering is in effect, costs are lower than during peak periods.
For ComEd: Smart Meters will allow them to remotely read electric meters; remotely disconnect your power if you don’t pay your bill on time; remotely restore your power after you have paid your late bill and the egregious fees they add to restore your power; cycle air conditioners during peak periods in extremely hot weather; and sense if the meter has been tampered with.
As part of the initial pilot project, our neighborhood of Humboldt Park, on Chicago's west side, has been chosen for Smart Meter installation. Humboldt Park is part of a group of communities which also include: Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Hillside, Maywood, Melrose Park, Oak Park and River Forest, and Tinley Park. These communities were selected because they are, allegedly, a representative a cross section of the entire ComEd service territory, and are a "good test bed" for technologies that may someday be deployed throughout ComEd's service territory.
As part of the pilot project, it will be necessary for ComEd service technicians to come to each residence and business scheduled to receive a new Smart Meter, have access to the meter housing, remove the old meter - disrupting electrical service at the selected location for between five and fifteen minutes, and install a new Smart Meter. With the exception of the service disruptions and the very hostile effects they can have on any unprotected electronic equipment - especially today's modern hi-def television sets, some of which MUST go through a proper cooling down process when they are shut off, to say nothing about the retired senior citizens who may have read the letter sent out by ComEd announcing the pilot program, or received a phone call from ComEd's automated system emphatically announcing the pilot program in a very quickly spoken and fast-read announcement, there is nothing wrong with shutting off someone's electricity un-announced.
The big issue is the fact that many of us who live in urban areas have, albeit against our liking, taken to locking the gates to our yards to prevent vandals from tearing up our gardens and petty criminals from stealing lawn furniture and tables from our porches and decks. Many of us in my area grew up in the “country,” far from the City and have only moved back here so we didn’t have to deal with long commutes every day. We were highly accustomed to leaving yard gates unlocked. In fact, most of us had no gates or fences what-so-ever before moving back into the City.
While we go to great lengths to provide access to ComEd meter readers so they can obtain accurate meter readings for our bills, when they show up according to schedule – in fact when they even bother to read those meters which are accessible at all and just fill out the reading card as “meter inaccessible” generating an overly high estimated bill, we don’t leave our yards and gates unlocked all the time, for access by just anyone.
Here in lies the problem. ComEd’s letter, the one sent to all customers who will receive the Smart Meter during the trials, clearly states:
“Within 20 days, ComEd will replace your existing meter with a new digital smart meter.
The installation is part of a ComEd pilot, approved by the Illinois Commerce commission to test smart meters in towns and neighborhoods that reflect the attributes of the entire ComEd service territory.
After a brief diatribe about the smart meter being the first “building block” on ComEd’s plans for a “Smart Grid,” the letter goes on to explain the smart meter installation:
“About your smart meter installation”
• You should receive a reminder phone call one week before the installation.
• Your installation will take place between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM
• Ensure ComEd has access to the meter by eliminating obstacles such as locked gates, doge, etc. If the meter is outdoors, we do not need to enter you home or business and you do not need to be present.
• If the meter is inaccessible, after two attempts[,] ComEd will contact you to schedule an appointment.
• The installation process averages 5 – 10 minutes.
• The installation will require a brief service interruption[,] so check your clocks and other electronic devices to reset”
Upon receipt of my Smart Meter installation notification letter, I tried to call ComEd’s business offices to see if I could schedule an installation. Because I work long hours and am frequently not home during the day, and because we keep the gate to the back yard, where the meter is located, located locked up so the neighborhood kids don’t steal things from the yard on a regular basis, ComEd will need to have one of use present to gain access.
Of course, by the time I got home, it was already 5:15 PM, and ComEd’s business offices are closed tighter than the lid of a new peanut butter jar. You can contact them if you have a power outage, or if there are downed lines in your area, but, God forbid, you are on of the working stiffs who depends on either a clogged expressway or the newly downsized CTA for transportation and cannot spend 30 to 40 minutes on a personal phone call from work. So I arranged to call from my cell phone the next day – outside the office, so it would not count against me at work.
After spending approximately 10 minutes on hold, having been prompted to “leave your name and phone number so a representative can call you back as soon as one becomes available,” and having received two reminder calls about my impending Smart Meter installation, one at 7:30 PM the night before and one at 8:01 AM that morning, I was finally able to speak to a live person.
When I spoke to the first individual, she was gracious, warm, and pleasant –something unusual for a customer service representative, especially at a utility, so I explained my situation with the locked yard and the fact that I had limited time during the week to stay home and wait for a ComEd technician to change out my now 18 year old electric meter for a new Smart Meter. She place me on hold and, after a couple of minutes, came back on the line to explain that I was “scheduled for Monday, the 15th of February at approximately 2:15 PM, but wanted to double check with the Smart Meter department to make certain nothing had changed with the schedule.
The Customer Service representative then placed me on hold again and, after about five minutes, came back on the line. The tone of her voice had changed significantly in the shore period she had been gone. She sounded as if she had lost her best friend when she said . . .
“I’m sorry, I will have to transfer you to the Smart Meter installation department for further assistance.”
I thanked her for her courteous assistance and she transferred the call . . .
After several rings, some music on terminal queue hold, and several clicks, a voice from the Smart Meter department answered my call. She asked for my name and account number to re-verify my identity and then proceeded to tell me that they were not making any reservations for smart meter installations – period, no exceptions.
She also stated that ComEd would make two attempts to install the meter and then call to schedule an installation.
Given the fact that ComEd has a habit of turning everything into either a rate increase or a fee, I asked her if that wasn’t counter-productive. I told her that ComEd already had a bad rap with consumers for the fact that they had sold off their generating plants to a new company who had, in turn, purchased ComEd as a subsidiary – setting up the ability to charge ComEd any price they wanted for “product” – in this case generated electricity; that ComEd was already under the gun for rate increases attributed to this back-door ownership.
I also told her that their insistence that they make two attempts to install meters in an area where they would probably have a 75 percent failure rate and have to make appointments so that someone could be home on the day of the Smart Meter installation was plain stupidity on their part and the work could be completed much more efficiently, with much more customer satisfaction, if they would just schedule the installations from the beginning, avoiding having to waste money by sending union techs out to swap out meters which were not accessible.
She told me scheduling was impossible.
I indicated we could not leave our gate open and they were just wasting money by sending out a crew to change our meter without scheduling a time in advance and she responded that was the way it worked.
End of conversation.
So, now you’ve seen my first posting about my most recent experience with ComEd.
There’s a whole lot more bottled up and waiting to be written by both myself and you, the readers of this blog.
I therefore invite you to pour your hearts out here with regard to any of your ComEd experiences, fostering an open discussion about a utility who has, along with People’s Northern Illinois Gas Company, have mastered the art of legally stealing from the pockets of their customers by way of various charges and taxes on their billing.
Incidentally, my Smart Meter is not yet installed and I already have a monthly line-item charge on my bill for the non-existent Smart Meter.
