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