What’s the real cost of smart meters?

There have been a number of articles recently published across the country indicating that the public has been losing faith in science because of global warming related issues. I love science and have not lost any faith in that at all.

However, when it comes to the politicization of green energy and global warming, I have lost faith in my government. I have lost faith in the validity of thinly supported scientific claims. And, I have no faith in business ventures that benefit from political campaign contributions instead of value in the marketplace - particularly when we have politicians bent on spending huge sums of money to assure re-election.

Obama has recently stated that he wants to see 60 million smart meters installed in the next few years. Why? What are the real costs and benefits and what are the advantages to consumers who will pay the bill? Various numbers on the costs and statements of benefits of these smart meter programs can be found through web searches. But, there does not seem to be any clear advantage to these meters to warrant a national program.

Remote meter reading services are already old technology and voluntary load cutoff agreements (offered and in place for many years) have the capability to remotely shave residential load peaks to reduce the power demand when desired. This can be done both for the economic benefit of the consumer as well as the power company.

What are the real costs of these new meters that additionally incur costs for installation, maintenance, repair, replacement, data evaluation and use, interest on capital loans, profit on investment, etc. And, how much are taxpayers investing in this through Obama’s donations of taxpayer money for “things green?” Faith has no function here.

Peter Wohld

Glen Ellyn