Politics & Government

Blogger Wins State Victory in Drive to Remove SDG&E Wireless Smart Meters

Blogger and activist Susan Brinchman has been lobbying for opt-out rights for 1 1/2 years.

A San Diego County woman can claim victory in an 18-month drive to restore her old analog electric meter and remove a wireless “smart meter” she blamed for a range of health problems.

A plan to let San Diego Gas & Electric customers keep or restore the analog model was given final approval Thursday by the state Public Utilities Commission.

The opt-out plan was requested by the San Diego-based Utility Consumers Action Network, and also applies to Southern California Edison customers.

Among the strongest advocates of the plan was Susan Brinchman of La Mesa, director of the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, who in August 2010 posted the first of nearly on Patch.com.

Her first was headlined Living Nightmare: How SDG&E Smart Meter Led to Headaches, Hearing Loss.

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Tentative approval of the arrangement was given last month by an administrative law judge.

Opponents of the smart meters express concerns over perceived health risks and privacy issues.

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 “As we move toward a more advanced electricity grid, smart meters will offer customers real benefits,’” said PUC President Michael Peevey. “However, if a customer does not want to have a smart meter, our decision today gives them that option.”

SDG&E customers who choose the analog model will have to pay $75 up front and an extra $10 monthly. Consumers in the “California Alternate Rates for Energy’” program would be charged $10 initially and $5 more per month.

Those charges will cover SDG&E’s extra costs for carrying both types of meters, and can be adjusted in the future when the utility’s cost-recovery requirements are determined.

The commission also approved 19 measurements for determining the effectiveness of smart grid technology being rolled out by the utilities, including the number of smart meter malfunctions during power outages, increases in the number of consumer complaints over accuracy of the new devices, and the number of smart meters replaced annually before the end of their expected useful life.

“Residential customers of both utilities may now officially request that the smart meters be removed from their residences,” said a posting on Brinchman’s site.

The site notes that the Southern California Edison plan will allow customers to “opt-out to the last type of meter they had before the smart meter, which may, in some cases, not be an analog meter, but a digital, electronic meter that may also produce RF microwave radiation emissions.”

A second phase to both proceedings will occur in June, said the site, “which will consider whether to allow entire local communities and customers in multi-family dwellings to opt-out as a group, and to possibly revise costs.”

Brinchman’s group said lawsuits involving the fees are expected because PUC Code Section 453 forbids charging extra fees related to safety and services.

“CEP’s position is that this is an incomplete, interim plan that will provide some relief, but does not address exposures from neighboring meters, and that a zone of safety should be allowed to be established around one’s home, for those who request it,” the group said.

“CEP’s position is that there should be no customer fees for the opt-out and that SDG&E and its investors should cover all costs; that commercial meters should be included in the opt-out; all banks of meters replaced with analogs, and that ultimately, the wireless and all RF-emitting meters should be banned and removed, replaced with safe analog meters.”

City News Service contributed to this report.


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