Even though many some of you have written to the PSC requesting an opt-out of Smart Meters in Kentucky, it could be months before that is decided. [And in fact it will be. Click here to read the 6/1/13 email exchange with Melnykovych, which includes a number to call to see about getting your installed meter removed.]
Meanwhile, your local Kentucky utility companies are rolling them out as quickly as possible to beat the ban.
Just got off the phone with Andrew Melnykovich at the PSC. Smart meters are being rolled out in Jackson County and in southern Kentucky. These are wirelessly transmitting your electrical use — including time of day monitoring — to the electric company.
Why Not Have a Smart Meter?
Utility records have always been public record, so a FOIA request will allow anyone at all to see your electrical life. Like when you are regularly home, when you are regularly not at home. When your hot water heater kicks on in the morning, indicating you might be in the shower… how dark you like your toast. Stuff everybody else needs to know.
How to Know if YOU have a Smart Meter
Write down the number on the front — it looks like a model number. The one shown above is a Landis & Gyr Focus AXR-SD (click here to see the pdf spec sheet).
Then search “landis & gyr Name Model#” and you will find it. It takes some figuring to see exactly what’s what… You can always call Landis & Gyr and talk to a product specialist at 1-800-Landis6.
You can also call your utility company (you’ll want to anyway) and ask what is on your home and what its functions are.
If you have a smart meter, Mr. Melnykovych says that, “In the interim [while an opt-out is being considered], smart meter issues are being addressed on a case by case basis. Customers who do not wish to have smart meters installed and are unable to reach an accommodation with their utility are free to contact the PSC’s Customer Assistance Division at 800-772-4636.”
If you don’t want Smart Meters in Kentucky, there are 4 things you MUST do:
1. IMPORTANT! Email a quick note to Andrew Melnykovych. “I demand to be able to opt-out of having a smart meter on my home.” (A longer version is below.) That’s all you need to say. So easy, so fast. The PSC is having a comment period right now (one with no end in sight, giving your local utility company plenty of time to install its meters… the comment period
couldwill go on for months.) However, the PSC has the authority to make regulations by which utility companies must abide and they can make a regulation that allows an opt-out. We need to push for this HARD.2. Call your electric utility and DEMAND they remove or not install a smart meter on your house.
3. Get your legislator to introduce legislation to allow an opt-out to smart meter installation on your home. I do not normally advocate legislative interference in the market but this is a monopoly and we have to fight fire with fire in the short term. Competition in the market, when the customer rules, would solve this problem beautifully! However, at present, there is no civil disobedience or free market push back short of going without electric service at our homes, which is how some utility companies have dealt with consumers who demand an opt-out.
4. If you do not have a smart meter yet, go to www.jerryday.com and get a copy of the sign to hang on your current meter.
And if you do nothing?
You will have a smart meter, emitting EMF radiation around your family’s heads, increased home fire hazard and ZERO privacy from both hackers and government.
Letter to PSC:
EMAIL Andrew Melnykovych
TO: Andrew Melnykovych, Director of Communications at PSC
SUBJECT: Case 2012-00428 [you must have this case # in the subject]
Re. Having a “smart meter” installed on my home
I demand that Kentucky electric utility customers be given a penalty-free opt-out to having any kind of a smart meter installed on our homes that transmits data wirelessly AND/OR gives time of usage reports to an electric utility.
Meters that transmit any time of usage — including daily usage — are not acceptable. Any EMF radiation at all is unacceptable.
Analog and some of the digital meters work just fine with no health or privacy concerns.
Here are two simple solutions:
1. There are electric meters that periodically transmit customer usage data wirelessly along the electric lines, once per week or once per month. These do not transmit time of usage data. No employee needed to visit the property and read the meter, no harmful EMF radiation, no fire hazard and no invasion of privacy.
2. In many cities, customers are charged an average fee monthly based on previous usage. Then the analog meter is read once or twice a year and the service charges are adjusted at that time.
What we really need is competition in the market. This problem would be solved immediately.
Thank you,
[your name]
The Bottom Line on Smart Meters in Kentucky
Consumers don’t want them. Whether radiation levels are minimal or dangerous, whether government will use information gleaned from time of usage reporting to charge people with crimes or not, the fact remains that consumers don’t want smart meters.
It is not for legislators or government employee — all paid by consumers — to decide whether or not consumers can opt out. As the only entity paying for the service, utility consumers demand an opt out. It is our right to protect our homes, our families and our property as we see fit. Government decided to make utility companies monopolies with the caveat that consumers would be protected. Protect us with an opt-out!
I have problems with the city hiking my bill, so I took pictures. They then came out said my meter was running backwards. It wasn’t, that was there way to protect themselves and then they came back with a smart meter. Before I even knew it was up. I asked to have it removed and was denied.
They don’t seem interested in what we want. I’m sorry to hear it. Did you ask in writing?
I made a petition on Change.org to demand that Aaron Greenwell the temporary director Demand our utilities give us and opt out. I have never been through such a struggle to get something on the internet. Someone does not want us to gather our power. Please visit my FB page and sign and share. Nancy A Stadtlander 270 922-6842. I am writing to you from rural Western Kentucky. My health is being destroyed. I both HEAR it and FEEL It. I am the canary in the coal mine. I am begging all of us to prove we are the ones that get to control what happens in our homes.
Hi Nancy, I agree it is criminal what they are doing. No opt-out? What are they afraid of? (A: loss of profits) Can you provide a link to the petition?
Join the discussion: https://www.change.org/p/stop-kenucky-smart-meter-program-we-demand-an-opt-out
Back in April after dragging their feet for years the Kentucky Public Utility Commission said that the electric companies “can choose to allow opt out but we don’t recommend it”. What is the Commission even there for if they offer NO assistance to the consumer! When my electric company notified us they would be putting in new meters I called them and said “I don’t care if you put in a new meter as long as it isn’t a Smart Meter”. They said “NO IT ISN’T a Smart Meter”. They lied. I filled an informal complaint and asked Kenergy to provide me with studies that show the system is safe. They didn’t and can’t because ALL studies prove it is a very dangerous and totally irresponsible technology. I sent Jerry Day’s Demand Letter to have the meter removed. Today is their deadline for removal and I haven’t heard anything at all from them. I called the worthless Kentucky Public Utility Commission and they told me that Kenergy claimed they had already responded! I also filed a Formal Complaint with the board over the Infrasound Pure Tone Noise Pollution. That was also 3 weeks ago and I haven’t even been acknowledged yet. I heard the monster following the electric lines up my hill. After installing the meter the monster noise invaded my house. All day 24/7 I hear it drone on and on and feel the radiation through every cell of my body. The bare electric wires were never designed for high speed 2-way communications and like any antenna they are broadcasting RF including through the wiring in our homes. I will be posting a Petition that I plan to lay on the desk of one of the uncaring KPUC executives. Please find me on FB: Nancy A Stadtlander. If you want to contact me and help with our cause 270 922-6842. Us Kentuckians will not go down. We will stand and FIGHT.
Safe! SMART METERS? Tell that to people whose health is AFFECTED by these nightmare pieces of crude! Tell that to the 200 SCIENTISTS verifying that AMI SMART METERS ARE NOT SAFE! THE RF RADIATION FROM THESE THINGS AFFECTS ALL FLESH AND BLOOD, ALL VEGETATION, YOU MAY BE HEALTHY ENOUGH NOW, BUT THE EXPOSURE OVER TIME WILL BREAK DOWN YOUR BODY , THEN LET’S SEE WHAT THOSE OF YOU WHO THINK IT WON’T HARMFUL YOU HAS TO SAY! I AM ALLERGIC TO THE WAVES THEY’RE PULSING AND BEING CRIPPLED BY THEM! SO DON’T GET IN MY FACE WITH THE STUPID COMMENTS OF THESE NIGHTMARE METERS BEING SAFE. THEY ARE ANYTHING BUT SAFE! IF YOU FEEL YOUR CIVil rights have BEEN VIOLATED, FILED A CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT IN YOUR STATE, PARENTS OF CHILDREN AFFECTED HAVE RIGHTS TO FILE FOR THAT CHILD. CIVIL RIGHTS, LEGAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ARE ALL BEING VIOLATED BY THE UTILITIES. STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS. CHECK OUT YOUR UTILITY COMPANIES, THEY MAY STILL HAVE THE ANALOG METERS.
Safe! SMART METERS? Tell that to people whose health is AFFECTED by these nightmare pieces of crude! Tell that to the 200 SCIENTISTS verifying that AMI SMART METERS ARE NOT SAFE! THE RF RADIATION FROM THESE THINGS AFFECTS ALL FLESH AND BLOOD, ALL VEGETATION, YOU MAY BE HEALTHY ENOUGH NOW, BUT THE EXPOSURE OVER TIME WILL BREAK DOWN YOUR BODY , THEN LET’S SEE WHAT THOSE OF YOU WHO THINK IT WON’T HARMFUL YOU HAS TO SAY! I AM ALLERGIC TO THE WAVES THEY’RE PULSING AND BEING CRIPPLED BY THEM! SO DON’T GET IN MY FACE WITH THE STUPID COMMENTS OF THESE NIGHTMARE METERS BEING SAFE. THEY ARE ANYTHING BUT SAFE! IF YOU FEEL YOUR CIVI
You get your actual facts from the very government agencies whose very jobs, pensions and benefits rely on the expansion of their niche. I don’t trust those anymore than I trust Monsanto-financed studies on GMOs.
And of course there are no independent peer-reviewed studies because those same gov outfits don’t allow it.
I’m going with anecdotal. It has not led me astray so far and I’m a pretty good researcher after years doing it online. You start to know when it’s BS and when it’s legit. Where I have almost always gone wrong is trusting a gov agency for any information, particularly when it comes to how safe that agency’s recommendations are. Feh.
Well I can understand not wanting to blindly trust any agency, there has been tons of peer reviewed science that is easily accessible on the safe tolerance of radiation for human cells. Also I don’t get my facts from the FCC I get the legal requirement information from them. The Fact are in the peer reviewed journals have have been published. Don’t get me wrong a concentrated beam of any frequency can cause severe damage; but at low enough levels there are plenty of RF frequencies that are harmless, we even put off a low EM field. Radiation is the very essence of life and there is no reason to fear all forms of energy, only those that are destructive to our cells. I understand your fear of the new but that doesn’t mean you should lash out against it and make bold claims without posting a single piece of evidence that the RF these things put off are even capable of putting of a damaging amount of energy even if someone wanted it to. Safety limits are enforced by the government, but they are discovered by scientists who are required to make there findings available.
Unfortunately I have yet to be lucky enough to receive a smart meter. However I can tell you there are not greater safety or health risks from a “Smart Meter” then there are from having a normal one and having in home internet. The FCC keeps anyone from broadcasting outside of the 2.5GHz range/800MHz Range which are both restricted in amount of power allowed to use without a special per-device license. In other words, these things are no stronger then your smart phones, laptop, Kindle, iPad, or any other wifi/bluetooth/cordless phone. These things put out less radiation then using your microwave, or a cell phone, or a TV, or a radio. Or not and. We are constantly surrounded in radiation, both from man made object to the stars. Such a weak amount of energy in the air can not disrupt you sleep patterns if your healthy. They will not cause any meaningful cellular damage (no cancer) maybe if you took a microwave apart or if you modified the transmitter in the meter it could. But you’d have to replace the system with an illegal to do that. There is no risk of hackers or big brother knowing how you like your toast unless you have an a meter attached to each individual outlet and broadcast what’s being used on that outlet (you’d personally have to modify the firmware in each meter per plug to do that). Just like the old meters, the old ones only provide power and tracking of how much power over all is used the in the home/business. What peer reviewed journals have ever sad there are any risks from radiation or monitoring? Because you bet I’ve spent a lot of time doing research on Wireless Protocols allowed in the U.S. and power standards,nothing has ever even suggest a risk from a single FCC approved meter. The only possible problem with smart meters are tighter energy restrictions which are a separate legal matter and per hour rather then day billing. Many in California have had bonus programs in which by avoiding using lots of power during peak hours they save money. Those are the only risks with Smart Meters. A Smart meter is nothing more then a more accurate analog meter with a network functionality. For Your convenience, Have you ever been charged for power you didn’t use? Well now you can have proof.
Everyone has a right to an opinion, but that’s a separate matter from actual facts.
I am 73 and I can tell you that the data is “always” tweaked in favor of the business. It was done by the liquor industry. The asbestos industry. The tabacco industry. Monsanto and their dame Roundup. And it has been done by the electric company with power lines that have been proved to be a health and cancer risk. These smart meters being on 24/7 are unnecessary once they are installed. If a customer does not want access to this technology and do not sit at their computer 24/7 watching a line graph, then they should be able to…
1. OptOut
2. Adjust the meters to be remote controlled via the internet by authorized personnel to turn them on long enough to get the current month bill and then turn them back off. Hell, set the vehicle to gps location and have the vehicle automatically turn them on and off and the driver won’t even need to be involved.
I am sure their are other options. But the point is, if you don’t have a problem with them, fine. No one is interfering with your right to install one. Have at it. But do not suppose that you get to make such a personal decision for me or anyone else.
Surely you must be able to see that those who feel this strongly have the right to decline being test subjects if they so choose?
I live in Louisville Ky and LG&E is installing smart meters in my neighborhood now. But, instead of telling everyone they are replacing the old meter and installing a smart meter, they left a tag on the door and in my newspaper box under my mailbox, stating that my natural gas riser was bad and needed to be replaced. I knew LG&E was going to come around soon and give me a smart meter, and figured this was their way of doing it. Because I drove around the neighborhood and every house in my neighborhood must have bad Risers. LMAO
Here is the response that I got from my comment to them.
**************************************************************************
Nov 13 at 2:21 PM
Dear Mr. xxxxx :
Thank you for your comments to the Kentucky Public Service Commission
regarding smart meter technology by electric utilities. As the use of
this type of technology in Kentucky is currently before the Commission in an administrative proceeding, your comments will be placed into the case file for the
Commission’s consideration as it deliberates in this matter.
The case number in this matter is 2012-00428. Please reference it in any further comments.
Records in the case are available on the PSC website at this location:
http://psc.ky.gov/Home/Library?type=Cases&folder=2012 cases/2012-00428
Thank you for your interest in this matter.
Andrew Melnykovych
Director of Communications
Kentucky Public Service Commission
211 Sower Boulevard
Frankfort, KY 40601
502-782-2564 cell:502-330-5981
Thank you. I guess they haven’t made a decision yet. Although some cooperatives are installing meters. I think they are hoping to install them all before they “make a decision.” A little slimy, but that’s my suspicion.
Message sent!!!!
Great! If you get a response (and you should), please post it here! Thank you.
Yes, it does. Please write to Andrew and tell him you don’t want these! Thank you, Shoeless!
Does the opportunity to contact PSC still exist today (11/11/2013)? I’ve read over this quickly but what is the best way to determine if you’ve been hit with the imperial probe droid. If I haven’t then I’d like to put a stop to it before it invades. :-)
Thanks
ShoelessJJ