Corrected: "Unconscionable practices of major utilities, Smart meters are definitely playing a part" & TX & NJ news
The link is still good
From my other Substack: Patricia’s Substack for Safe Tech International | Patricia Burke | Substack
SMART WATER METERS TEXAS: Plano to pay $765K after water meter tech collapse affects thousands A technology issue has caused Plano’s entire water meter system to collapse. The problem will cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for staff to manually read water meters for two years. Similar issues with the company Aclara’s transmission technology have been reported in other cities across the continent. Plano City Council approved spending $765,000 over two years to have temporary workers manually read the city’s roughly 88,000 water meters to properly bill water customers. The technology from Aclara uses transmission units to send readings from the water meters to data collectors, so the city can calculate water bills. With the technology, the city no longer needed to send staff to walk routes and read water meters for monthly billing and service transfers. In 2019, Plano entered a nearly $10.2 million four-year contract with Core & Main LP, an equipment supplier, for transmission units from Aclara, whose parent company is Hubbell. In 2021, this contract went up to more than $10.6 million. The meter transmission units normally have a 20-year lifespan, city documents show. But in November 2023, the city noticed the units’ batteries were depleting early and they were failing to send data. For a year, the city’s vendor investigated the issue, and in November 2024, sent out a software fix to the transmission units. The software was defective and over 73,000 meter transmission units stopped working. The entire system collapsed, documents show. The problem is not with the water meters themselves, said Steve Stoler, Plano’s director of media relations, but the meter transmission units on the meters.“The City is further investigating the issue and intends to hold accountable those responsible for the expenses,” Stoler wrote in a statement. The city now needs around 20 staff to manually read the city’s meters, and the Customer & Utility Services division has only six field technicians. At a Feb. 10 meeting, City Council approved $345,000 this fiscal year and $420,000 the next to pay a staffing agency in McKinney for temporary staff. [] Minneapolis faced similar technology concerns with Aclara, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported, and Toronto is spending millions of dollars to replace the company’s failing transmitters, according to Canada’s CBC News. MORE AT LINK
SMART METERS NEW JERSEY: NEW BILL LOOKS TO FIGHT NEW JERSEY ELECTRICITY COST HIKES
PSE&G customers who opt out of having a smart meter installed are charged $12 a month. The monthly opt-out fee for JCP&L customers is higher at $15.
Now, three Republicans from Ocean County want to stop utilities from also charging ratepayers who have smart meters.
The concern is that utilities are installing smart meters and then passing along the cost of installation to their customers.
Utilities have previously denied any correlation between higher energy costs and smart meters.
The sister bills (S-4096 and A-5299) would allow the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to fine utilities if it's found they are passing that cost along to ratepayers.
The bill would also stop utilities from disconnecting service to customers who can't pay their bills within six months of a hike of 5% or more.
SORRY FOR THE ERROR:
Fortunately, Substack enables writers to make corrections to a post without causing the link the break, which I love (this is not case on other platforms).
When I posted my article about the research by the Center for Biological Diversity about sky-rocketing revenues vs. power shut offs, I inadvertently included a complete utility bill with home address, instead of the cropped version. The initial post has been modified, if you share the link instead of forwarding the post, it wil be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all you do.