Current regulations in Victoria do not allow for the disabling of the remote function of electricity smart meters. The fact remains that Victorians are subjected to among the harshest smart meter policies in Australia. Elsewhere, customers have the right to refuse a meter with wireless communications. In other Australian jurisdictions, even if a smart meter has already been installed, customers are entitled to have their meter’s pulsed microwave transmissions disabled.
This needs to change! In view of this appalling state of affairs, SSMA urges Victorian residents to sign an e-petition addressed to the Victorian Legislative Council (Upper House) calling on the government to change regulations in Victoria to allow for the disabling of the remote function of electricity smart meters.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) advise, “There have been anecdotal reports into potential health effects of exposure to RF EME [radio frequency electromagnetic energy] from smart meters claiming of a variety of ill effects that have been generally termed ‘electromagnetic hypersensitivity’ or EHS.” The current options to assist customers, offered by distributors United Energy and Powercor, do not address health concerns as they do not allow for the removal of this direct source of RF EME from properties.
Smart meters, Smart phones, Bluetooth, Mobile phone towers, Wi-Fi….
Scientists and medical doctors reveal the shocking truth about electro-sensitivity: fatigue, insomnia, headaches, tinnitus and much more… and share how you can minimise your exposure and recover from this constant zapping.
You are invited to attend a FREE online EMF Hazards Summit, 11 – 14 April 2024.
One Woman. One Disability. One Powerful Voice for change. Remembering Nearfield is an animated film about a disability called electrohypersensitivity (EHS).
Because of severe Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, Wi-Fi is the last thing she needs, along with the social discrimination against her disability. She wants solutions, not excuses. Her life matters.
A man who claimed to be suffering from headaches due to his Linky meter has won a court battle to have it removed.
Joseph Cascina from Saint-André-le-Puy (Loire) reported hearing a “constant whistling” in his head after its installation.
“All day, all night… Every evening I had to take a pill to get to sleep, life had become hell,” he told France 3.
“When I left my home, the whistling stopped within an hour. And at my in-laws’ house, where there is no Linky meter, I didn’t hear it either. But when I got back home, within a quarter of an hour, the sound started again.”
Mr Cascina, who had reported no symptoms prior to the Linky meter’s installation, asked Enedis to remove it. When the company refused, he took them to court in January 2023.
The court in Saint-Etienne noted that Mr Cascina was suffering, and ruled that the meter should be removed.
The ruling was based on the court’s interpretation of the European Court of Justice’s ‘Principle of precaution’.
This states that “in case of doubt as to the cause or extent of harm to individuals, institutions can require protective measures without waiting for the reality of the risks to be fully established.”
Enedis replaced Mr Cascina’s Linky meter with an older model, but appealed, aware that many opponents to Linky meters could act upon the decision.
However, on November 28 the Court of Appeal in Lyon upheld the original ruling.
The court’s decision was celebrated by the Stop Linky 5G collective, which opposes the mandatory installation of Linky meters.
“The three judges ruled that the court was faced with symptoms that are justifiable,” said spokesperson Denis Nicolier. “Enedis, which has a public service mission, must protect users in the context of the Principle of precaution.”
Linky meters, which were first introduced in 2018, have been fitted in more than 90% of households. People who do not want one in their home must pay a surcharge, however the ruling on health grounds makes Mr Cascina exempt from this.
What is electromagnetic hypersensitivity?
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) was recognised as a handicap in France in 2015.
“The symptoms are varied: headaches, chronic fatigue, rashes, concentration problems and more,” Professor Luc Fontana of the University Hospital of Saint-Étienne told France 3.
“The challenge is in ascribing these symptoms to the syndrome, since initially, one must be careful to check they are not due to another health problem.”
In a 2005 report, the World Health Organisation said that the symptoms are “certainly real”, but added that “there is no scientific basis to link EHS symptoms to electromagnetic field exposure.”
An estimated 5% of the population, or 3.5 million people in France could be affected by the syndrome, according to a 2018 report by France’s National Social Security Administration, ANSES.
Many such people are already members of groups that oppose Linky meters in France, including the Stop Linky 5G collective, which hopes that the court’s decision will help spread awareness about the condition.
“The real value here is that doctors and judges worked together to study a typical case of electromagnetic hypersensitivity and look for answers,” Mr Nicolier said.
NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — An international group of leading lawyers, physicians, physicists, epidemiologists and other children’s health experts have today announced their support for a new International Declaration intended to raise public awareness of three fundamental rights of children which are not adequately being protected: the right to be free from addictive platforms and apps; the right to be free from hazardous radiation from wireless devices; and the right to be free from commercial exploitation of private information.
Children have a fundamental human right to be free from addiction, exposure and exploitation in the digital world.
Children around the world are suffering from digital addiction, radiation exposure and commercial exploitation.
In addition to the legal, health, scientific experts and child advocates who have signed, signatures from the general public are essential to show strong support. So please EVERYONE sign and share widely!
Remember when governments said smart meters would save you money? Remember when nobody believed power companies would use smart meters to remotely control people’s usage or cut their power off involuntarily?
Hundreds of thousands of homes in the United Kingdom with smart meters have been remotely switched to more expensive prepayment plans in the past six years.
Over 350,000 smart meters were remotely switched to repay debt between 2017 and 2023, The Telegraph can reveal.
It comes as Ofgem, the energy regulator, is set to bring in new rules setting a “minimum standard” that limits when firms can forcibly change a customer’s tariff. Campaigners are also calling on the Government to outlaw the practice altogether.
The number of remote switches rose fivefold in the five years to 2021, but dropped 61pc in 2022 to 58,977 from over 152,000 the year before, according to official figures, as the Government stepped in to shield consumers from surging costs by raising the energy price cap and introducing the Energy Price Guarantee.
Gillian Cooper, head of energy policy at charity Citizens Advice, said: “As energy bills rocketed last year, far too many people were forced onto a prepayment meter they couldn’t afford to keep topped up – often despite clear evidence they could suffer harm if their credit ran out.
“Ofgem’s code of practice is a much-needed improvement in the protections people have against forced installations, including remote switches…These protections must be in place by winter or history could repeat itself.”
Prepayment tariffs are on average £21 a year more expensive than ordinary meter tariffs, according to Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, which announced this month that it would fund an elimination of prepayment premiums until April 2024, when Ofgem is expected to bring in further measures scrapping them permanently.
In a year marked by the cost of living crisis, 4,914 people on average were remotely switched to prepayment meters every month of 2022, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The most remote switches occurred in the three months from July to September, which saw just over 16,758 in total.
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “We know that the majority of smart meter switches to PPM mode take place due to debt. This highlights the need for the Government working with charities and energy firms to develop a ‘help to repay’ scheme for the nation’s surging levels of household energy debt.
“Switching a smart meter to prepayment mode without a customers’ explicit and informed consent is as good as forcing them to self-disconnect… the Government must amend the Energy Bill to ban forced switching to traditional or smart prepayment meters when the legislation comes back to the House of Commons in September.”
While it is not clear what proportion of remote switches since 2017 were involuntary, as opposed to voluntary switches where the customer agrees or requests the change, the quarterly number of switches fell by 40pc on the 2022 average during the first three months of 2023 when the moratorium on forcing PPMs on customers came into effect.
The total number of remote switches between 2017 and the first quarter of 2023 was 354,118, according to Ofgem’s figures.
Households that cannot afford to top up their meter risk being disconnected from their power entirely and suppliers are able to dock outstanding debt from the top ups.
Beware, United Energy in Victoria is still trying to hoodwink their customers into believing they must or need to ‘upgrade’ their analogue meter to a smart meter.
Friday 16 June is world EHS Day. EHS stands for electromagnetic hyper-sensitivity .
This day is a chance to raise awareness about this large and growing problem of EHS and how to become part of the solution.
EHS derives from environmental pollution and not from a disease from which EHS people suffer. When EHS sufferers spend enough time in an unpolluted environment, their health recovers by itself.
To cure EHS, you don’t need medication, but a healthy environment!
Electromagnetic pollution is not only toxic for EHS, it also weakens the immune defences of the whole population and is a major co-factor in the triggering of various pathologies depending on the fragility of each individual.
This is why the reduction of electrosmog should be a priority public health objective.
The objective of the World EHS Day is not only to highlight the moral and physical suffering of the millions of EHS people already impacted by electromagnetic pollution, but also to warn the rest of the population about a danger they are unaware of.
It is important to take advantage of this Day to reach out to those who are not aware of EHS.
Ideas in how to
-How to show your support for EHS -Make the invisible EHS visible -Inform people about electro-hypersensitivity -Inform people about the health risks generated by electrosmog -Inform people about prevention and health protection solutions
Victorian electricity distributor, AusNet Services, has written a subsequent letter to customers who have retained a manually read meter. It states that, ‘After much consideration, we have decided not to charge a fee for manually reading your meter’ (SSMA emphasis).
AusNet customers have been asked to disregard its previous letter, which stated that a new quarterly fee of $34.80 (excluding GST) for manual meter reads was starting on 1 July 2023.
It has also apologised for ‘any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused’.
SSMA is grateful for AusNet’s change of heart on this issue. However, it is an understatement to suggest that the previous letter merely caused confusion or inconvenience.
For some Victorians, in particular those who are already struggling to cope in an environment that is increasingly saturated with pulsed microwaves, the introduction of a new levy represented one more assault on a cohort that is already marginalised. And unlike elsewhere in Australia, Victorians are still denied choice, when it comes to electricity metering.
It appears that AusNet Services, which is one of the five Victorian power distributors, has lost its moral compass. According to a letter which it mailed to customers, changes to its manual reading process will result in customers with a manually read meter being charged a quarterly fee of $34.80 (excluding GST) from 1 July 2023. The letter states that this fee will increase every financial year and will be added to the customer’s power bill.
This money grab is in stark contrast to AusNet’s position in 2016, when it admitted to government that it offered to remove communication modules from functioning meters in very limited circumstances such as hypersensitivity, in response to a question shown on page 21 of its submission.
Why are vulnerable Victorians now being targeted? According to the 2021 Premises Standards Review of the Disability (Access to Premises – Building) Standards 2010,22.7% of submissions brought up electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Although this government review was in relation to access to public buildings, surely it is even more important that people living with electromagnetic hypersensitivity are able to enjoy their homes and gardens, without the added insult to their bodies of pulsed microwaves from smart meters? The new fee is akin to demanding that wheelchair users pay to access ramps into buildings or that life support customers are charged for specialised energy protection to maintain equipment. It is not acceptable that customers should have to pay for the privilege of having an electricity meter that confines itself to metering, in order to protect their health.
SSMA has heard a number of distressing stories from our members and supporters in regard to AusNet’s heartlessness in responding to questions about the new fee. It simply isn’t good enough when a business with a monopoly interest seeks to exploit its position and run roughshod over customers raising legitimate concerns and workarounds. Customers are able to shop around when entering a contract with an electricity retailer. There is no such option when dealing with a power distributor.
Electricity consumers in Victoria already suffer from the draconian measures instigated by the Victorian Government in 2006 to facilitate the mandated rollout of smart meters to Victorian households and small businesses. Those Victorians who were fortunate enough to be able to put in place measures to prevent power distributors from swapping over perfectly good analogue meters for electronic devices that not only fail sooner and sometimes lead to significantly higher power bills, but also provide a means of surveillance and cast a blanket of electro-smog over our environment, are now under fresh assault. Unlike customers in NSW, QLD, SA, Tas, the ACT and WA, Victorian customers have no automatic right to request a non-communicating smart meter if their analogue meter is replaced or if there is already a transmitting smart meter in place. Victorian customers also are unable to escape (entirely, according to some reports from interstate) or secure a reduction in the meter reading fee by changing retailers. This places those Victorians who were able to protect their manually read meter in an untenable position if the only means of protecting their meter is to capitulate to AusNet’s demands.
AusNet is the first of the Victorian power distributors to demand a fee for manually reading meters. Does this mean that Jemena, United Energy, CitiPower and Powercor are going to follow suit?
Whilst the Victorian Government’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure Order in Council 2014laid the groundwork for distributors to charge for manual meter reads, up until now this has not occurred. In fact, when a manual meter read hasn’t been possible for one reason or another, SSMA members and followers have reported that they have been able to negotiate acceptable workarounds with their retailer.
This appears to no longer be the case for AusNet customers. Offers to do self-reads, supported by photos, have been ignored. This stands in contrast to customers living in NSW, QLD, SA, Tas and the ACT, who fall under the umbrella of the National Energy Retail Rules. In these jurisdictions, although retailers are required to use their best endeavours to ensure actual readings are usually carried out every three months and at least once per year, customers can provide their own reading if they want. Although this rule was introduced to reduce the risk of customers being exposed to inaccurately estimated bills where the retailer didn’t obtain a reading, the rule provides clear recognition that customers are capable of doing their own reads.
Due to being a mandated rolloutall Victorian customers have contributed, and continue to contribute, towards so-called Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). This applies whether or not a smart meter is in place. This was spelt out in 2014 by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) in a Final Decision, which states, ‘Further, we are satisfied that each distributor has excluded the costs of manual meter reads from its AMI building block costs … Refusal customers therefore bear all the costs of manual meter fees which the Order intends rather than smart meter customers and which the Victorian Minister’s submission supports. Those customers will continue to also pay the AMI meter charge, despite not having one’.
The 2015 Auditor-General’s report on the rollout of AMI in Victoria found that there would be no overall benefit to consumers but instead ‘a likely cost of $319 million’, which he recognised might further blow out. The 2015 review followed an equally scathing review in 2009. Given this situation, doesn’t charging an obligatory manual reading fee every three months amount to double-dipping by AusNet? The fee doesn’t even match the lowest fee that is charged elsewhere in Australia for a special meter read, which suggests further profiteering.
SSMA also finds it interesting that, although the quarterly meter-reading fee is being raised by AusNet, a letter sent to its customers states that the fee ‘will be added to your power bill’. The closing page of AusNet’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure 2015 Charges Revision Application claimed that, ‘If a distributor choses [sic] to levy a manual meter fee, it is required to directly bill customers. That is, the manual meter costs are not passed onto retailers, as per standard industry practice’. Has this situation changed? If so, it places an added burden on those customers who might wish to ‘fight the good fight’ against yet another assault on their rights. Not only will they need to negotiate with AusNet, but it seems they might also have to include their retailer in on the discussions.
Previous SSMA submission covering manual meter read fees:
Stop Smart Meters Australia 