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Millions of Smart Meters May Over-Inflate Readings by up to 600% (bleepingcomputer.com)
"Lab tests carried out by Dutch scientists have shown that some of today's 'smart' electrical meters may give out false readings that in some cases can be 582% higher than actual energy consumption," reports BleepingComputer. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
The study involved several tests conducted on nine different brands of "smart" meters, also referred to in the industry as "static energy meters." Researchers also used one electromechanical meter for reference... Experiments went on for six months, with individual tests lasting at least one week, and sometimes several weeks. Test results varied wildly, with some meters reporting errors way above their disclosed range, going from -32% to +582%...
The results of the study also matched numbers posted on an online forum by a disgruntled Dutchman complaining about high energy bills... Researchers blamed all the issues on the design of some smart meters, and, ironically, electrical devices with energy-saving features. The latter devices, researchers say, introduced a large amount of noise in electrical current waveforms, which disrupt the smart meter sensors tasked with recording power consumption...
Long-time Slashdot reader ClarkMills points out the researchers estimate that "potentially inaccurate meters have been installed in the meter cabinets of at least 750,000 Dutch households," while the article suggests that worldwide, "the numbers of possibly faulty smart meters could be in the millions,especially after some governments, especially in the EU, have pushed for smart meters to replace classic electromechanical (rotating disk) meters."
The results of the study also matched numbers posted on an online forum by a disgruntled Dutchman complaining about high energy bills... Researchers blamed all the issues on the design of some smart meters, and, ironically, electrical devices with energy-saving features. The latter devices, researchers say, introduced a large amount of noise in electrical current waveforms, which disrupt the smart meter sensors tasked with recording power consumption...
Long-time Slashdot reader ClarkMills points out the researchers estimate that "potentially inaccurate meters have been installed in the meter cabinets of at least 750,000 Dutch households," while the article suggests that worldwide, "the numbers of possibly faulty smart meters could be in the millions,especially after some governments, especially in the EU, have pushed for smart meters to replace classic electromechanical (rotating disk) meters."
The one thing people were afraid of when they were forced to switch over the smart meters happened.
lose != loose
You're underestimating the value of predictive data in stabilizing the grid... and throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Getting smart meters up to snuff on privacy, accuracy, and useful features is a worthy endeavor. Saying "hulk hate smart meters, hulk smash!" is not.
Someone had to do it.
I'd rather reap the benefits of lower priced electricity.
"Sir, we apologize if you somehow received the impression that that was an option... but it is not. Is there anything else we can help you with?"
Look at it from the electricity company's point of view:
All they've got is meter readings. That's all. They don't know (and in most markets, they can't control even if they want to) what kind of meter is fitted to each house. There's a separate metering company that does that. To ensure fair play, there's a certification and testing requirement - but if that test is flawed (which is what the Dutch study suggests), then there's no real fallback.
So now consider a small energy retailer with 10,000 customers... Of those 10,000, maybe 100 are complaining about their readings. It's possible some of them may have defective meters (those based on Rogowski coils) - but how would they know? (Go do a Google search now, and tell me if an Elster single-phase GRexD AMI meter has a Rogowski coil. I'll wait.) But frankly, the most likely scenario is that they're just whinging because they're deadbeats who hate to pay their bills.
So let's say the retailer does some investigation (and if you did the Google search suggested above, you'll know by now this is not something quick and trivial to do), and discovers that one specific type of meter they use has this defect. There are, let's say, 200 of those among their customer base, and 20 of the complaining customers (and 180 uncomplaining ones) have them fitted. What now?
Well, now they have to (urgently): notify the local Reconciliation Authority, get the meters changed (with all the hoopla that involves), and try to work out (a) how much electricity they've overbilled their current customers, (b) how much they've overbilled their past customers, (c) how much they've overpaid for their electricity (because those same meter reads are also used to determine how much power your supplier needs to buy), and (d) who should be footing the bill for this entire colossal fuckup. All the while, fending off calls from hundreds of customers whose meters are perfectly fine, but who have read some half-assed account of this research and think they might be able to cash in.
You would have to be clinically insane to think this is a happy scenario for the electricity retailer.
It is the bloody same to a power plant whether 100W go to John Smith and 900W to Joe User, or whether both of them use 500W.
It is even much cheaper and more accurate to measure the power where a multitude of users are connected.
The only reason for the introduction of "smart meters" has been to collect personal data to sell and to con people into more expenses for their particular pattern of power usage.
The amount one person draws, and hence the predictive power of any one smart meter is minuscule and nearly useless. For grid scale predictions you need aggregate data that is more efficiently and inexpensively acquired at aggregation points -- transformers, substations, etc.
Silence is a state of mime.
"Getting smart meters up to snuff on privacy"
You're a fucking moron if you trust your power company to keep shit private, given history.
"Hey, LEO, this guy's using a lot of power, looks like a grow operation going on with regular 12-hour and 18-hour power spikes on a timer."
That you think privacy even exists is fucking laughable, it demonstrates just how ignorant of reality you truly are. Bet you voted Democrat, Republican, or Liberal, didn't you? It would figure, since none of you fuckers have a goddamned clue what rights you ignorantly sign away every fucking day by being inactive and ignorant fucks.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
If the majority of the meters are giving us bad data, their predictive data may well have a negative value.
You would have to be clinically insane to think this is a happy scenario for the electricity retailer.
Of course not. But it's the correct thing to do.
And if there *is* a bit of sweeping under the rug, it goes from being a "simple" error in the metering mechanisms to good old fraud, which applies just as much to companies as is does to customers trying to cheat on their power bills. And fraud tends to attract the attention of government authorities and the press - and that's a big old shitstorm nobody wants.
So your legal counsel will always suggest the path of due diligence once things come to a certain level of attention. That "certain level" is debatable, but if there's an increase in billing complaints and ANY investigations suggest that there's a systemic metering error going on, then you're on very thin ice if you choose to ignore it.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.