Opt out: Does 'voluntary' smart grid work?

How efficient can a smart grid be if it can’t “see” every part of the energy network? Wouldn’t that be the equivalent of cutting off the connection to some neurons in the human brain, which certainly wouldn’t seem a smart thing to do, from a being-able-to-walk, talk and reason perspective?

Utility companies should be taking a long, hard look at that question as efforts build across the US and elsewhere to let electricity customers opt out of smart meters. In some places, those efforts are beginning to take on the look of a populist movement, which would prove dangerous territory for energy companies to navigate through.

In Maine, the Tea Party has essentially weighed in on the matter as newly elected Gov. Paul LePage indicated through a spokesperson this week that “people should be able to make up their own minds” about smart meters in their homes. State Rep. Heather Sirocki, a fellow Republican, has proposed legislation that would require utilities to offer customers an alternative to wireless smart meters. However, the bill also has Democratic and independent support.

Central Maine Power Company, part of Iberdrola USA, last fall launched a $1.5 billion smart-grid upgrade program that includes the rollout of 620,000 smart meters across its service area.

Besides creating real-time data “blind spots” on the grid, customers who choose to opt out of smart metering incur a different set of ongoing costs for utilities. These include the expense of live, in-person meter reads and service calls, as well as maintenance of older, often obsolete, meters. One of the questions this raises is, who pays for these costs: the customer who opts out or the customer base at large?

An article in the Maine newspaper The Forecaster quotes Eric Bryant, the state’s attorney for the Public Advocate’s Office, as saying the Central Maine Power Company should have done more to educate customers about smart metering earlier in the process.

“I think education back then would have helped quell some of this,” Bryant said.

He’s absolutely right about that. Utility companies from Maine, Illinois and British Columbia to Colorado, California and the UK should be listening … and acting. Because if they don’t do it soon, the backlash against smart metering could quickly grow out of control.