BIG BROTHER: Smart Meters enable air conditioners to REMOTELY shut off – MGUY Australia

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

Households with smart meters had their air conditioning units shut down or throttled to protect the struggling electricity grid – a taste of things to come….

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqhflXoW-zc

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Thousands sent eye-watering bills after switching to smart meters

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

Thousands of customers in England have been sent inaccurate energy bills after switching to a smart meter, according to a leading charity.

Citizens Advice said nearly half (49pc) of the 52,000 concerned customers who
got in touch about their energy bills between January and October had
experienced issues with a smart meter.

The Government is aiming to install a meter in three quarters of British homes by
2025 amid an ambitious rollout forecast to cost more than £13.5bn. Advocates
argue that the technology helps to make billing more accurate by sending energy
suppliers up-to-date readings automatically.

However, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) itself has
admitted 4.3m smart meters are “dumb” – potentially leading to incorrect bills.
Citizens Advice previously said it had received complaints of shock bills of more
than £1,000 after smart meters failed to send updates to energy suppliers,
leading to people dramatically underestimating their usage.

The 52,000 customers who contacted the company equated to one person every
two minutes. It was an 83pc increase compared to the same period in 2020,
before the energy crisis.

Citizens Advice urged Ofgem, the Government regulator, to strengthen
protections for consumers by limiting back-billing to six months for people with
smart meters fitted.

The smart meter rollout is lagging behind a revised target to install the devices in
74.5pc of homes by 2025, with only 61pc of households currently using one.

Large energy suppliers installed 663,167 in the second quarter of the year, down
by 15pc year-on-year. Outside the pandemic, this was the lowest quarterly figure
for more than eight years.

The downturn comes despite electricity prices soaring, which should make the
financial benefits of smart meters more apparent…….

Smart meter cons:

-Smart meters have been known to go “dumb”, leaving households facing shock bills
that don’t match their in-home display. Some customers claim suppliers have been
unresponsive when asked to fix a broken meter.

-Suppliers can switch your meter over to “prepayment” mode without needing to
enter your home, which can effectively cut you off from your energy supply.

-Time-of-use tariffs are largely useless to households more reliant on gas, as they only
take into account electricity usage. This means most households will be locked out of
more meaningful savings.

-Even for households that use a lot of electricity, demand flexibility schemes offered
by providers offer meagre sums of money.

Abridged from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/bills/energy/thousands-sent-incorrect-bills-after-installing-smart-meter/

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AEMC shirks its duty to ensure safety of accelerated smart meter rollout

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) made a draft rule in April that would accelerate the deployment of smart meters in much of Australia.

Stakeholders were encouraged to ‘help shape the solution’ by lodging submissions on the draft rule by 30 May 2024. The AEMC claimed that this would contribute to well-informed, high quality rule changes.

Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. 

More than two thirds of the submissions did NOT support an accelerated roll out of smart meters.

Over 100 submissions voiced objections and raised serious safety issues in regard to health and privacy.

Yet, despite this clearly articulated opposition, the AEMC’s Directions paper of 15 August stated that ‘Stakeholders agree that there are benefits from an accelerated rollout, including most importantly benefits to customers from having earlier access to smart meter technology’, citing submissions to the draft determination as being the source for this surprising claim.

As the majority of the submissions objecting to an accelerated roll out of smart meters came from individuals (in other words, the actual stakeholders who will suffer the consequences of the proposed acceleration), does this mean that, yet again, it’s the spin of big business that dwarfs common sense?

Implementation of the Accelerating Smart Meter Deployment draft rule has now been pushed out from the original date slated for early July to 28 November 2024.

This provides a small reprieve for Australians.  But for those of us who place safety above profits, it gives cold comfort in the light of the AEMC’s refusal to genuinely engage with members of the community.

The AEMC has not, to-date, made an attempt to publicly address safety concerns that were raised in submissions.  Instead, it has elected to only focus on retail tariff issues. Submissions for these were due on 12 September.  

Is this a case of the AEMC fiddling whilst Rome burns?

Information on the draft Accelerating Smart Meter Deployment rule change is available at the following link: https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/accelerating-smart-meter-deployment

Submissions to the April draft rule determination can be accessed by clicking on ‘Draft’ in the ‘Select an option’ box (under Documentation).

Stop Smart Meters Australia’s submission to the April draft rule determination is available here.

SSMA’s previous post on the draft Accelerating Smart Meter Deployment rule can be viewed here.

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Victorian South East Water customers, beware…..

Posted on August 17, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

TPG lands South East Water smart meter contract for Victoria

The nation’s third-largest telco has outmanoeuvred its biggest competitor to land the largest smart meter rollout in Australia, over a stretch that’s tens of thousands of kilometres long.

TPG has nabbed the 10-year Victorian deal from South East Water, part of a major smart upgrade of its water meters that will remove the need for meter readers altogether.

Both TPG and Telstra had provided connectivity for the 90,000 smart meters already operated but it was the underdog that landed the ultimate contract and will connect and manage one million meters to be rolled out over the next decade.

It’s a relatively new area for the telco but one it hopes to take ownership of, said Chris Russo, TPG’s general manager enterprise and government customer sales and solutions 

“It’s the start of a very big ambition of ours which is to take category leadership in water metering support from a connectivity perspective, and to really own that domain from a telco capability,” she said.

Ms Russo said TPG viewed the deal as exciting as it was a chance to be a part of the water industry’s digital transformation as well as test the limits of its ­network.

“The market is nascent in its level of digital adoption,” she said. “We can see it’s an industry that is rife with innovation and it’s got a lot of digital adoption to do and that’s exciting for us because we can play a part and in doing so we can really demonstrate the robust nature of our network.”

Each water meter will be ­fitted with a 4G sim and TPG will provide connectivity and the ­analytics platform that South East Water will use.

The telco will also batch test a certain number of meters for quality and assurance testing.

A digital water meter is priced between $150 and $200 depending on the type of sensors it has inside and depending on which of the three suppliers South East Water uses it comes from.

Mark Elvins, SEW’s acting general manager of digital utility, said work had already begun to replace meters across Victoria.

Each meter takes about 10 minutes to replace and can connect to the network within minutes, with its first report provided within 24 hours. From there, customers would be able to get a daily update of their water use that can be broken down into 30-minute increments.

SEW had about 42 installers who would work to replace between 800 and 900 a day, with a goal of up to 200,000 per year……..

Abridged from: The Australian

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Get ready for the spin on smart meters

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

Letter to the Editor – Canberra CityNews:

I’ve just made a submission on smart meters to the Australian Energy
Market Commission (AEMC). 

AEMCis currently looking at accelerating smart meter deployment in NSW, Queensland, the ACT and SA, following a request from industry players Intellihub, SA Power Networks and Alinta Energy. 

Smart meters are promoted by industry and regulators as the best thing since sliced bread. However, the replacement of electromechanical meters with digital technology has resulted in locking consumers into a continuing cycle of higher electricity bills. 

Accumulation meters have a long lifespan, whereas smart meters need to be replaced over time. Smart meters also depend on sophisticated technology, requiring communication networks, data storage, software applications and technical expertise.

Research released by The Australia Institute in 2019 showed that “time of use pricing” facilitated by smart meters drives up household energy costs. Electricity companies and regulators push for higher electricity prices at peak times, as well as higher “shoulder” periods. In theory, this encourages people to move their energy consumption to times of the day when it is cheaper for utilities to provide it.

The Australia Institute concluded that many households have now exhausted their capacity to cut electricity consumption or change their time of electricity use. In reality, electricity companies are using electricity demand peaks to push for higher consumer prices to increase their profits.

The call to accelerate the smart meter rollout is clearly about industry interests over that of consumers. Get ready for more spin saying it’s all about the advantages for consumers. Guess who is paying?

Murray May, Cook

Source: CBRCityNews

Information of the Australia Institute 2019 research can be found here

Posted in Smart Meter | 6 Comments

Smart Meters, Dirty Electricity, Pulses and Health – New Resource

Posted on May 27, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

Health complaints from smart meters installed by the thousands in homes are no longer surprising.

A free resource has recently been updated and translated into English that aims to provide an overview of smart meters, with a focus on health effects. This resource is for anyone who is interested in learning more about smart meters. It is well referenced and can be used by anyone.

To download the book, go to: https://einarflydal.com/sdm_downloads/download-smartmeters-dirty-electricity-pulses-and-health-pdf/

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AEMC moves to accelerate the roll out of smart meters in Australia

Posted on May 10, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has made a draft rule designed to turbocharge the deployment of smart meters. The draft rule determination states that the rule would achieve ‘universal uptake of smart meters in the NEM [National Energy Market] by 2030’.

The new rule represents a major departure from the ‘Expanding competition in metering and related services’ electricity rule that came into force in Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory on 1 December 2017. 

Customers would no longer be given the option to retain legacy meters when retailers are undertaking meter replacements. 

Retailers would be required to use their best endeavours to meet yearly interim targets.  New civil penalties would apply to retailers for non-compliance with the final 2030 target of universal smart meter penetration. 

The new draft rule, however, does not remove the right for customers to elect to have a non-communicating (Type 4A) smart meter.  The AEMC’s 2023 report, titled Review of the regulatory framework for metering services, stated that currently less than 0.01 per cent of customers had opted for Type 4A meters. 

In practice, the new Accelerating Smart Meter Deployment rule would affect customers in NSW, SA, QLD and the ACT.  The AEMC said that Tasmania already has an acceleration program in place. 

The number of notices that retailers would be required to send to customers before a meter deployment has been reduced from two to one.  The minimum notice period would also be shortened.  The notice would be required to be given to the customer no earlier than 60 business days and no later than 4 business days before the retailer proposes to replace the meter.  Currently, the minimum period required to give notice to a customer about an impending meter replacement is 15 business days. 

The AEMC can only make and amend the electricity and energy retail rules if doing so will contribute to the relevant energy objective. This takes into account the long term interests of customers with respect to price, quality, safety, reliability and security of electricity as well as targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For further information on the draft rule and to make a submission, go to: https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/accelerating-smart-meter-deployment

Submissions close on 30 May 2024. 

The AEMC’s tips for making a submission can be accessed at the following link: https://www.aemc.gov.au/our-work/changing-energy-rules-unique-process/making-rule-change-request/submission-tips

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Victorian petition to allow disabling of remote function of electricity smart meters

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

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.

TO VIEW AND SIGN THE PETITION, GO TO:

https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/get-involved/petitions/allow-disabling-of-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.

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Is Your Body Overwhelmed By This”Electro-Pollution”?

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

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.

To view EMF Hazards Summit video trailer and to register go to: https://emfhazards.com/

Posted in Smart Meter | 3 Comments

Remembering Nearfield – Award winning short film

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

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.

Remembering Nearfield

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