Smart Meters - Public Service Commission

government agencies cared about safety, electrical meters were solid state, with a thick
glass casing, built to last decades. Now they are built in Mexico and China out of plastic,
made only to last a few years. While analog meters were designed to withstand
electrical surges, untested ‘smart’ meters allow surges to flow into homes, risking the
safety of residents and damaging untold thousands of appliances. Ask the utility to
compensate residents for damages? “That’s your wiring ma’am- not our meter.” A
meter that happens not to be UL listed we might add. They eat at the banquet and we
pick up the tab.
It’s not as if the industry hasn’t been aware of the problem, as documents from Edison
Electric Institute in April show. It’s just that profit has taken precedence over
precaution. For the last couple of years, as the reports of smart meter fires pile up, the
task of tracking and investigating them has fallen to individual volunteers and
grassroots community organizations, as agencies whose job it is to ensure public safety
bury their heads in the sand. Sadly this has included fire departments, which (to put it
delicately) have not been quick to respond to the problem.
A fault with the meters themselves, or unprofessional installations (or both) have led to
hundreds-probably thousands of fires and electrical problems in the US, Canada, and
Australia. People have lost their homes, and some may have lost their lives, because
regulatory agencies have ignored growing evidence that there is a substantial fire risk
from the new meters. In British Columbia, a rash of recent smart meter fires including a
home that suffered two successive smart meter fires has led to renewed calls for a
moratorium. In Houston, Texas a woman’s house caught fire from a smart meter, and
the Fire Dept. said this was the first such instance. An electrician in the comments says
not so. There are countless other examples.
Excuse me sir, you’re going to have to leave our neighborhood.
It turns out that “Smart” Meters are a fire risk, on top of everything else. A
risk some of us are being asked to pay to avoid. A risk that is being forced
on others. We’ll see how Maryland responds to that dirty reality tomorrow. Whatever
the regulators do, it’s become abundantly clear that we must take responsibility for the
safety of our families and our neighbourhoods- ourselves.
This is no time to be polite, mind your own business, and draw the curtains. When you
see that guy in the truck roll down your street, get together with your neighbors
and tell him he’s not welcome. Bring your video camera and send us the