KCP&L Smart Grid not a Good Plan for Consumers

by Allen Williams


Missouri Public Service (MPS) has accepted KCPL's 5-year plan for sustainable smart grid development.  The DOE funded MPS version can be accessed here. What does this mean to you as a consumer?

Source: KCP&L Smart Grid from Missouri Public Service Commission


There are few benefits for the electric consumer, the majority of infrastructure is aimed at collecting utility customer information and transmitting it via WIFI back to the Great Plains Subsidiary.  KCP&L claims increased system reliability and fewer outages to their smart grid: "There will be increased information about customer energy usage and the ability to monitor, manage and ultimately reduce energy consumption and bills.."

But how's that different from the histogram of usage that already appears on my monthly bill? The answer is KCP&L can determine exactly what is being operated in the home. The company is marketing the smart grid as advantageous to customers but what are claimed as benefits actually favors KCP&L not the consumer. The KCP&L plan version is available here.

For the system to produce the greatest economic benefit, individual homes must allow KCP&L to remotely control their household thermostat. There is a good possibility that participation will become mandatory at some point just as smart meters have been mandated by the company. Can you refuse? I was told by the KCP&L installation technician that I couldn't opt out. When companies dictate to you what you must do in order to receive their services, you are ruled by fascism. In a similar event in Nevada, the power company took the smart meter and left a hole where the meter was, leaving the woman without electrical power. One wonders what payoff the KCC and local politicians are getting to ignore consumer health and security issues and just look the other way.

KCP&L 's plan states that the thermostat is one way communication but MPS indicates that it's bi-directional as it has to be to cycle your AC compressor and provide feedback data to the company. KCP&L has the ability to send a signal providing instructions to the thermostat in to reduce cooling demand... programmable via the Internet " Note that cycling your air conditioning unit benefits KCP&L because you pay for the surge current (inrush) for each 15-minute cycle as well as the added wear and tear on the unit. Inrush current can be as much as 3.5 times as high as the normal load current, so if your unit typically uses around 20 amps during operation that amounts to 70 amps-4 times and hour plus the normal operating current.

KCP&L claims that "Cycling event-cycle compressor off and on for 15-minute increments, for no more than four hours." However, if KCP&L and its affiliates don't like your politics, you could be 'off' a lot longer than 4 hours.

There are some 25 additional disadvantages for the smart meter consumer as documented in a sample utility letter from stopsmarmeters.org concerning Pacific Gas and Electric customers who have a similar program. PG&E issues are common to KCP&L's five year plan and it's no surprise that KCP&L omits the disadvantages of their smart grid program. Utilities stand to make enormous profits long term from smart grid technology, so it's understandable that they'd hide any consumer disadvantages. Here is a brief summary of customer concerns:

  • [Smart Meters] individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy. Smart Meters" are, by definition, surveillance devices which violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored.

  • Smart meters are not protected from EMP attacks, large EMPs or localized EMPs as simple as a kid with a battery and a coil (Electro Magnetic Pulse)

This second case will be a lot of fun for the consumer trying to prove that he or she hasn't consumed the kilowatts that a compromised meter is now claiming. Note that the KCPL system permits the company to download whatever EER/ECA cost factors are desired directly into your meter and who's to know? Remember, that the social mindset is always to believe the machine because computers, etc... don't make mistakes!

  • They {Smart Meters] transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.

Once a hacker gains access to your programmable thermostat via any internet connection, he's uniquely positioned to know the best time to burglarize that home and sexual predators could know when young children might be alone. Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, [NSA] corrupt law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.

Newer appliances with microchips will broadcast their ID so the utility (and others) will know exactly what you're doing in your own home in real time.  And, like Microsoft, Google and other collaborators who have give the NSA access to their customer databases, KCP&L will lie to its ratepayers, denying that NSA or anyone else has acquired such information.  Even if KCP&L's smart meter employs encrypted WIFI signals, the NSA will be provided with the encryption keys and/or direct access to the consumer's account at KCP&L's data hub despite a particular customer not being a terrorist threat.  KCP&L is bringing the public a step closer to the government's Total Information Awareness system.

There are also health and fire hazards associated with smart meter use but simply chalked up to the cost of doing business. "The Saskatchewan government has ordered its power utility SaskPower to remove 105,000 so-called smart meters installed at homes and businesses across the province, following concerns about eight unexplained fires associated with the units." Then there are reported health problems due to the radiation emitted by the devices.

There are some 25 stakeholder lobby groups involved in the Great Plains Smart Grid project, "..including neighborhood groups, Congressman Cleaver, MARC, MEC, KCP&L, MGE, KCMO water, UMKC" but no mention of the KCP&L pledge to cooperate with the radical Sierra Club on legislative and regulatory changes that would reduce the company's overall emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent by the year 2020.

The George Soros driven Sierra Club association tends to explain why KCP&L wants so many EER/ECA type surcharges. The KCC has already approved 99% of KCP&L's surcharge requests.  The latest request is for Time of Use (TOU)  because smart grid development and operation costs are driven by fringe environmental groups to the detriment of ratepayers but you won't hear that from the utility or local media outlets.  Currently, KCP&L profits are more than adequate to enable them to pay some $1.65 per shareholder as listed in the Great Plains Energy Corp 2nd quarter 2014 report.

The KCPL smart grid is clearly an Agenda 21 sustainable development program that will impose cap and trade on the American public via subterfuge. The EER/ECA/TOU surcharges are simply a hedge against lawsuit and regulatory threats. Utility rates will continue to increase to the planned benefit of the electric cartel owners, not the consumer.  Rest assured, the smart grid concept is planned to be the electric supply standard across North America including all rural areas. 

Related: 

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Editorial+Smart+response+meter+worries/10074297/story.html