Smart Meter is Finally Installed - Something's Fishy!

As promised by Alicia at ComEd, the field tech actually showed up - on time, on Tuesday 23 March.  He was actually a bit early and, when I explained that I would need to shutdown some equipment before he could proceed he stated he was authorized to jumper the meter plug-in while swapping the meter and keep the power on during the process.

There were initially two issues which mandated my requiring ComEd an appointment for this process:

1. Our back yard is locked.  We have a high fence and live in the West Humboldt Park area of Chicago.  Yes, it is just as safe as any other neighborhood in Chicago, perhaps even a bit safer because we don't have moms driving their kids to the school across the street as the talk on their cell phones, ignoring both the City of Chicago's mandatory hands free law for cell phones and the new state law which has zero tolerance for the use of a cell phone in a school zone;

2. We have some nice garden furniture, decorative statuary, and a rather well maintained garden in our back yard and we don't want the kids from the school across the street coming in and helping themselves to any of our garden art or picking the flowers off the blooming plants - something they do in the front yard all spring long while the Iris is blooming; 

3. We don't care to have any further attempts at having our down-spouts stolen.  While neither the gutters or downspouts are either aluminium or copper - they are PVC, they attempted to steal the largest downspout from our front yard and some friends of ours in Logan Square had all of the newly replaced copper downspouts on their home stolen last summer - just a few days after they had them replaced.  

Given the fact that the economy is NOT, in spite of what either the Wall Street Journal or the FED would like people to believe, getting any better, and given the fact that Orr High School's new aluminium bleacher seats are disappearing, one section at a time, we'd prefer to not come home to find all of our trees and plants cut down and our garden furniture and gutters gone.

Now it's Sunday, 28 March, five days after the new Smart Meter has been installed and I am working around the house trying to play catch up before I start another week of work when I never have time to do those things which always seem to pile into the list no matter how hard you work on it, and I get a call from the Blackstone Group . . .

Apart from the fact that I fully agree with their analysis of the fact that our economy is still in a crisis, what the hell does the Blackstone Group, an investment group which deals in everything from alternative asset management, private equity, real estate, mutual funds, and, yes, even though they are publicly stating the the economy is still in trouble, hedge funds - the product that put more than one investment company out of business and is still creating a strong undertow which will eventually surface and, along with the mortgage crisis, vacant business real estate, and failing banks, bring our economy back to it's knees far worse that what we saw in 2008 and 2009.

Getting back to the call, I answer the phone and it's a gentleman who identifies himself as representing the Blackstone Group.  He states that he is calling because, "ComEd will soon be placing Smart Meters into some neighborhoods and . . . "

I cut him off at that point and told him ComEd had already replaced my old analog meter with a Smart Meter and he becomes totally silent!

More silence . . . .

More silence . . . .

Now I am curious, so I ask him what this is all about - as he is beginning to hang up I might add.

He mumbles something to the effect that he was calling about the ComEd Smart Meter and then just hangs up.

OK, now I am curious.  Why would someone from the Blackstone group, who, somehow, got my name - exactly as it is on my ComEd bill, and got my phone number, which is not published, call me to discuss a future Smart Meter installation which has already been completed?

Hello caller ID.  I check the caller ID and there is none - probably because Vonage needs at least two rings to transmit the data to the phone.  No problem, I have Vonage and I can look up any phone call, either in-bound our out-bound, at any time.  So, I retrieve the number and call back.

The voice mail belongs to LaSalle Franklin at The Blackstone Group, but neither Mr Franklin, nor anyone else, it responding to my return call so I get his voice mail.  After pressing "2" to leave a message  [how archaic is that?   Well setup voice mail should never prompt you to press something to leave a message - it should just allow you to leave the message!] I leave a voice mail message requesting information as to:

1. Why is the Blackstone Group involved in calling ComEd customers who might receive Smart Meters on a Sunday afternoon?

2. What, exactly, is the Blackstone Group's relationship, or non-relationship, with ComEd?

3. How did someone from the Blackstone Group get my name, exactly as it is listed on my ComEd bill?

4. How did someone from the Blackstone Group get my unlisted, unpublished home phone number?

5. What was the purpose of calling me about my participation in ComEd's Smart Meter program?

6. Why did Mr Franklin, or whoever it was who called me at 1:48 PM, on Sunday, 28 March, 2010, from 312.423.4005, become unresponsive and refuse to give me any more details regarding the reasons for his call when I questioned him?

I'll wait a few days to see if anyone responds and then forward this case on to CUB to see if they can help demistify the experience . . .

Alicia from ComEd

After calling a few times and not finding me at home or in my office, I receive a call from Alicia at ComEd's Bellwood office on 17 March 2010 and she's calling to schedule an appointment to install our new Smart Meter.


She's only doing her job, but she's calling on the 17th and practically demands that I allow them to do the meter swap the next day.  I explain to her that that's not convenient and will have to have time to plan to take equipment off-line and arrange to be home.  After babbling something non-intelligible into her phone I tell her that I have the following Tuesday, 24 March, in the afternoon available and she trys to schedule the appointment for 10:00 AM.


I explain to her that I had already indicated to her I would not be available until the afternoon and ask what time she has available after 1:00 PM.  She begrudgingly agrees to set an appointment for 2:00 PM and tells me they will see me then . . .  


I've written down her phone number from the caller ID display, and can always go back to my Vonage logs and look it up, so I now have an actual person who can make decisions and I can contact if there are problems with the scheduled time.  

How Hard is it to Make An Appointment?

What part of the word, "appointment" do the employees of Commonwealth Edison not understand?

According to The Free Dictionary dot com, the word appointment can be defined as follows:

ap•point•ment (-pointmnt) n.

1. a. The act of appointing or designating someone for an office or position.
    b. The office or position to which one has been appointed.

2. An arrangement to do something or meet someone at a particular time and place. See Synonyms at engagement.

3. appointments Furnishings, fittings, or equipment.

4. Law The act of directing the disposition of property by virtue of a power granted for this purpose.

In our case, we are looking for an execution of the second definition of the word - "an arrangement to do something or meet someone at a particular time and place."

As stated previously, I have given ComEd my home and cell phone numbers to use as points of contact, specifically stating that I would require several days notice so I could clear my schedule, make certain my clients activities were not disrupted, and allow them access after shutting down some very sensitive equipment in the proscribed manner.

So, how does ComEd handle the making of an appointment? The first two times they actually sent a field tech - paid at the rate of $35.00 per hour, plus very generous benefits, to the door to "make an appointment" for that day or the next day.

In both cases they were told the appointment had to be at least one week out and the next day was not acceptable.

On Monday, 15 March, we received an in-person visit from a second installer who was "in the neighborhood, making appointments for tomorrow." He was unceremoniously told him that less than 24 hour notice did not an appointment constitute. He was a bit miffed and I told him to refer this to his office, citing my CUB [Citizen's Utility Board] complaint number and he left.

On Tuesday 16 March, we received a call from Alicia in ComEd's Bellwood Illinois office, asking to schedule an appointment. Ben took the call and told her I would be back in touch with her to make an appointment.

I got Alicia's message when I came home and went to bed Tuesday afternoon with a lousy head cold. I was still home and in bed with the cold when she called back on Wednesday afternoon and she immediately tried to make the appointment for today - Thursday, 18 March. Once again, I explained I required more lead time than just 24 hours and asked if Tuesday or Wednesday of next week would be good. She asked if Tuesday morning, 23 March, would work and I told her I had already scheduled a meeting that morning, but any time after 2:00 PM that afternoon would work.

So, now we will wait and see how well ComEd can keep an actual appointment - now scheduled for 2:00 PM on 23 March.

ComEd's Smart Meter Deployment Program in Humboldt Park

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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.

Source: http://www.comed.com/Documents/Home/SmartMeterPilotOverview.pdf

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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.