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Thread: Smart Meters

  1. #1
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    Default Smart Meters

    Hidden agenda for smart meters

    Battle to curb $154m in losses to marijuana grow ops may ding all of us

    By Michael Smyth, The Province June 26, 2011



    * Story
    * Photos ( 1 )


    Fiona Taylor of B.C. Hydro holds new smart meter (left) and old meter.

    Fiona Taylor of B.C. Hydro holds new smart meter (left) and old meter.
    Photograph by: Bill Keay - PNG Files, The Province

    It's amazing how the amount of electricity stolen by marijuana growers in B.C. is increasing faster than a hippie's appetite after a double bong hit.

    A new report cited by B.C. Hydro pegs the annual amount of power stolen by marijuana grow ops at an astonishing $109 million.

    The report adds some new categories: "illegitimate" power use by marijuana growers who actually pay their bills, and the amount of money B.C. Hydro must spend on upgraded infrastructure to deliver all that power to thousands of grow ops.

    Total damage to B.C. Hydro and its customers from marijuana grow ops: $154 million a year, the equivalent of a five-per-cent surcharge on your electricity bill.

    B.C. Hydro's answer to the problem: spend $1 billion on smart meters to stop pot-producing power poachers.

    It's hard to know where to begin explaining how screwed up and illogical this is.

    But first, let's review Hydro's recent history of estimating marijuanarelated power theft.

    Grow ops need a lot of electricity to power high-wattage lamps, water pumps, dehumidifiers, security systems and other equipment. Growers often steal electricity, by tampering with Hydro's existing "dumb meters," or diverting power from the main supply line.

    In 2004, Hydro estimated marijuana power theft at $12 million a year. Then Hydro rolled out its plan to install smart meters.

    Hydro estimated power theft at $30 million last August, then $100 million in the spring, and now $154 million from theft and illegitimate use.

    A cynic might suspect Hydro was exaggerating grow-op thefts to gain support for its smart meters from suspicious customers.

    After all, the original purpose of smart meters is to jack up your electricity bill through "time of use" billing, where you pay more for consuming power at peak periods, such as around dinner time.

    Hydro denies the smart meters will be used for time-of-use billing. Instead, the smart meters will be used for things such as catching all those illegal grow ops, it says.

    Really?

    If Hydro wanted to catch powerstealing pot growers, it could hire a few dozen retired cops to inspect power lines for signs of tampering or jerry-rigging. That would cost a lot less than $1 billion.

    Ironically, many marijuana growers like the idea of smart meters, because it means Hydro won't be sending snoopy meter readers around their houses any more.

    "It's actually better to have the smart meter," writes an anonymous poster on rollitup.org, a marijuana chat room.

    "The guys that check meters won't have to go in your yard any more, eliminating any chance of seeing or smelling something."

    Other large-scale growers are switching to diesel-powered generators to conceal electricity use. Just last week, Mounties busted a huge grow-op near Hope powered by a dozen gas generators.

    And do you really think clever growers won't figure out a way to bypass the smart meters, just like they bypass the dumb meters now? Google "hack your smart meter" for the answer.

    The bottom line: B.C. Hydro is stoking reefer madness. It loves pushing this stamp-out-grow-ops line because that's its best argument for selling the public on smart meters.

    My prediction: Marijuana production in B.C. will continue to soar, while you get gouged on your electricity bill with time-of-use billing.

    [email protected]

    Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/technolog...#ixzz1QV8nFcZD


    Peace GS
    Changing the color of cannabis one grower at a time.

  2. #2
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    Changing the color of cannabis one grower at a time.

  3. #3
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    Just a heads up the article has a quote from rollitup. I found it interesting someone was monitoring that site. Then I found this quote on another site. Peace GS

    "interesting article..... and damn that is the 2nd time I've seen rollitup mentioned in different news articles lately."
    Changing the color of cannabis one grower at a time.

  4. #4
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    More stuff. Peace GS

    Smart meters
    Really interesting video here, we all need to contact our hydro providers and let them know how we feel about this!


    http://canadianawareness.org/2011/07/smart-meters/


    have not tried this out yet, but will be today and hopefully it works!

    FROM: Certified U.S. Postal Mail #….
    Energy Customer’s Name
    Street Address
    City State Zip

    TO:
    Energy Provider
    Street Address
    City State Zip

    Date of letter

    NOTICE OF NO CONSENT TO TRESPASS AND SURVEILLANCE, NOTICE OF LIABILITY

    Dear (Energy Provider) and all agents, officers, employees, contractors and interested parties,

    If you intend to install a “Smart Meter” or any activity monitoring device at the above address, you and all other parties are hereby denied consent for installation and use of all such device on the above property and installation and use of any activity monitoring device is hereby refused and prohibited. Informed consent is legally required for installation of any surveillance device and any device that will collect and transmit private and personal data to undisclosed and unauthorized parties for undisclosed and unauthorized purposes. Authorization for sharing of personal and private information may only be given by the originator and subject of that information. That authorization is hereby denied and refused with regard to the above property and all its occupants. “Smart Meters” violate the law and cause endangerment to residents by the following factors:
    1. They individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy.
    2. They monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security.
    3. They transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.
    4. Data about occupant’s daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data.
    5. Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants.
    6. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.
    7. “Smart Meters” are, by definition, surveillance devices which violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored.
    8. It is possible for example, with analysis of certain “Smart Meter” data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.
    9. Your company has not adequately disclosed the particular recording and transmission capabilities of the smart meter, or the extent of the data that will be recorded, stored and shared, or the purposes to which the data will and will not be put.

    I forbid, refuse and deny consent of any installation and use of any monitoring, eavesdropping, and surveillance devices on my property, my place of residence and my place of occupancy. That applies to and includes “Smart Meters” and activity monitoring devices of any and all kinds. Any attempt to install any such device directed at me, other inhabitants, guests, my property or residence will constitute trespass, stalking, wiretapping and unlawful surveillance, all prohibited and punishable by law through criminal and civil complaints. All persons, government agencies and private organizations responsible for installing or operating monitoring devices directed at or recording my activities, which I have not specifically authorized in writing, will be fully liable for any violations, intrusions, harm or negative consequences caused or made possible by those devices whether those negative consequences are justified by “law” or not..

    This is legal notice. After this delivery the liabilities listed above may not be denied or avoided by parties named and implied in this notice.

    Notice to principal is notice to agent and notice to agent is notice to principal. All rights reserved.

    Signature

    Name of energy user and/or customer
    Changing the color of cannabis one grower at a time.

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  6. #6
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    Changing the color of cannabis one grower at a time.

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