Skip to content

Smart meters remain dumb idea

Re: Power meters still on manual, Letters, April 18, 2012.

Re: Power meters still on manual, Letters, April 18, 2012.

David Field, we know the meters are being read manually, but get your head out of the sand. There is more than one meter that is malfunctioning and it’s the usage that they are recording wrong.

The hard part for B.C. Hydro customers was to get Hydro to admit there were problems. Hydro said the huge bills are due to a cold winter. They finally recalled 1,000 meters and gave out some refunds, although I know personally of people who have had no satisfaction from Hydro.

Since the B.C. Liberals took over B.C. Hydro has made some strange decisions. The B.C. Transmission Corp., which was a seven year experiment, I think that cost us millions. And my personal favourite, Hydro recently paid out $43 million in performance bonuses to its employees, for what one might ask? Doing their job? Where is the business case for this?

Where is the business case for the smart meter? Why would you replace a working meter with less than half the lifespan of our present meter  has safety and surveillance issues and has not saved one watt of power in other jurisdictions. The only smart thing about this meter is the people who sold the meter to B.C. Hydro. I am also very concerned with the debt associated with these meters. What assets are we going to sell to pay this debt?

B.C. Hydro is our legacy bought and paid for by British Columbians. If our apathy lets B.C. Hydro run roughshod over us and turn this viable essential service into a service only the wealthy can afford most of  us will lose a clean source of power forever. We need to refuse this meter. It is our right.

John Wheatcroft

Highlands