"SMART GRID" Being Called The Scam Of The Century By GLG Expert Contributor To The Baltimore Sun_Green Earl

Solar, Wind, Bio, Energy News And Commentary By_Green Earl, 30 year Pioneer In Conservation & Solar Energy

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Smart Grid Scam –Rage Against the Machine

August 1, 2009

Analysis of:Expedited review for BGE 'smart meter' plan meets opposition | www.baltimoresun.com

Disconnected starving people can’t use the Smart Grid. There is an electric and gas glut. People won't be paying for energy at any price. The BGE smart grid scam is the beginning of the end for the Smart Grid scam world wide. Remember, the Smart Grid was stopped by a wind energy consultant in Maryland.

Smart Grid Scam - Worship the BGE Green Orb says Dennis the Menace

July 27, 2009

Analysis of:BGE Pushs Smart Grid | www.hometownannapolis.com

The public doesn’t dare fight the smart grid. A BGE customer is pushing the smart grid. The customer Dennis apparently has been President of a heating, air conditioning and appliance business. Like customer Shirley from a lofty National Security IT company, is Dennis any more credible? Should this qualify as another Joe the Plumber type PR scam by BGE? Like PBS TV, the newspaper needs to sell advertising to BGE. Is the public so dumb or so scared to dare question the Smart Grid Initiative?

Smart Grid is the Scam of the Century

July 17, 2009

Analysis of:Baltimore Sun | www.baltimoresun.com

The Smart Grid is a Trojan Horse Big Brother that wants to get into your home under the disguise of being green.

A organization called TANC just tried to get their stimulus grabbing project going across 600 miles and 6,000 Northern California property owners, many who have invested in conservation and solar generation, I might add. (From YOLO County North To Lassen County)

Read here in my blog about it. Check out the STOPTANC.ORG group and read what they said about this BS project. All the utilities involved have since dropped out of
the project and it had been canceled and removed from the Federal Register. Finally
ACTUAL POWER TO THE PEOPLE. _Green Earl

Make sure you read both articles,,,this one and the one below
Dated Aug 1st, 2009

Smart Grid is the Scam of the Century

July 17, 2009/Also Aug 1st. 3009

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* Analysis by: GLG Expert Contributor
* Analysis of: Baltimore Sun
* Published at: www.baltimoresun.com

Summary

The Smart Grid is a Trojan Horse Big Brother that wants to get into your home under the disguise of being green.
Analysis

Smart Grid is the Scam of the Century. Ken Bosley, MA Energy Consultant PO Box 585 Sparks, Maryland 21152 410 472 1081 24 / 7 hour voicemail 800... www.zwind.com Bosley@zwind.com PRELIMINARY ROUGH DRAFT The smart grid is a total waste of money. It won’t even work. And if it does work, you won’t want it. Note my comments are particular to Baltimore Gas and Electric, but are almost totally applicable to every other electric company, and most are, planning “smart grids”. After all, you got be hip, slick and cool and green. “Smart Grid is defined by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) as “using digital information and controls technology to improve the reliability, security, and efficiency of the electric grid. A Smart Grid facilitates the deployment and integration of distributed and renewable supply resources, “smart” consumer devices, automated systems, and electricity storage and peak shaving technologies.” {taken from BGE PSC testimony linked below.} I say that going more and more digital greatly degrades reliability and security and will cost so much that efficiency is a bad net loss no matter how smart it is applied. Hi. My name is Ken Bosley, and I am a wind energy scientist pioneer. See www.zwind.com I have been developing wind turbines power projects since the 1970s and consulting in public utility litigation and regulatory policy. The whole idea behind distributed technologies is to gain reliability. Connecting distributed systems digitally eliminates all reliability and security of distributed systems. Transmission line and their substations are remotely controllable and monitored and have been for decades. Distribution lines and small generators and distribution systems are less and sometimes, not remotely controllable. The industrial term is SCADA. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. Adding more and more SCADA to the electrical power system is what the term Smart Grid seems to generally what people seem to be thinking of. If there were cheap ways to store electricity, then maybe the smart grid would have some net value. There is no storage of electric energy in the mid Atlantic region. There are only a few examples of electric energy storage out west in the form of compressed air caverns and high head pumped hydro electric with big storage lakes. Large scale flywheels, capacitors, and battery electricity storage are fantasy. These and other electric storage systems are very costly and are used only in very important reliability circumstances. As a practical statement, there is no such thing as electrical storage of any reasonable economy that has not yet already been built in the USA. The smart grid will not defer generation capacity or save energy on its own. The smart grid does not make power, energy or natural gas. Smart meters do not even store power on their own. Industrial, commercial and agricultural users of power have already been on TOU – Time of use – metering for almost for ever. The smart grid initiative, as BGE calls it, SGI, the smart grid, already exists for industrial, commercial and agricultural users of power. The meter reader goes and reads a half dozens meters per hook up, typically, on peak, mid peak, off peak, super off peak, and capacity in kilowatt demand, which is typically billed at the highest of any 15 minute period, charged every month, but billed as if each moth was the same as the highest month, over the last several years. A regular standard glass electric meter is one the true heroes of 20th century technology. Many are at least 30 years old. A regular old electric meter serves as a great electrical surge protective device. A little black plastic box with a chip in it will not replace all the functions of your “old” meter. The remote reading meters, deployed for like the last 20 years, were first charged to customers of almost $200 each for each gas and electric service. Even though BGE stopped charging a fee directly for the remote reading meters, BGE refused to refund customers who had already paid for them. Further, these remote reading meters typically failed at least 3 times in my experience. All they do is allow a meter reader to read the meter a few feet away. Remote reading meters thus were not cheap, but to some extent useful for hard to get to meter in basements and not making a meter reader fight off dogs while going in people’s yards. The true meaning of the application of the term smart grid is really just for residences. I will repeat that. Smart Grid is really just for your home, not you office, not your shop, not your farm or factory – which typically has 3 phase power and TOU metering since at least the mid 1900’s. Smart Grid is for only for your home for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. SCADA. The concept smart grid is the application of technology coming together. One, being the internet, was at one time termed; Time Shared Interactive Computer Controlled Informational Television back in the 1970s. The cable TV, internet and phone companies have not been able to pull off a smart grid like the electric company can, or is trying to do. People need electricity, before they need a phone, TV, or internet. So, only an electric company has enough monopoly power to pull off the concept of smart grid that will be your SCADA Big Brother. The idea of the smart grid will know what you ate and how long you brushed your teeth. What isn’t electric in you house now? The Amish really have the right idea, not to have grid tied power. Anything that is electric can readily and cheaply have all kinds of sensors and transmit data back through to the electric company. The consumer impact potential is beyond comprehension. The electric company will know who, what, when, how much and why you buy or do anything. That is the purpose of the SMART GRID. The smart grid goes way beyond the concept of Big Brother. How and why the concept of the smart grid is of negative value to a particular electrical utility service area is a beyond the general scope of this report. Hooking up gas meters to the smart grid is really of little academic or practical application. The smart grid gas meter is a true absolute waste of money for nothing even more than electric. I have extracted blurbs, in quotes, from the Baltimore Gas & Electric submittal to Maryland Public Service Commission. I am only through the first 10 percent of this particular BGE pleading. My initial preliminary comments are enclosed. Ken Bosley, MA Energy Consultant PO Box 585 Sparks, Maryland 21152 410 472 1081 24 / 7 hour voicemail 800 894 6352 www.zwind.com Bosley@zwind.com ---------------- http://webapp.psc.state.md.us/Intranet/maillog/submit_new.cfm?MaillogPath=117710&DirPath=C:\Casenum\Admin%20Filings\110000-159999\117710\&maillogNum=117710 http://www.bge.com/vcmfiles/BGE/Files/Rates%20and%20Tariffs/POLR%20Rates/POLR_Rates_PTC_MiscCharges.pdf “Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE or the Company) is seeking approval to proceed with the foundational projects of its Smart Grid Initiative – a utility-to-meter-to-premise two-way communications network, the deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), and Smart Energy Pricing (SEP).” -------------- Call it a Billion dollars for starters. “The cost of Smart Grid is estimated to be on the order of $482 million during the 4 – 5 year deployment period, with several hundred million more of ongoing operating costs post deployment completion.” - ------------------ Yea, right, 73% Electric Vehicles. We will be lucky to have one percent in ten years. Since an electric charging is roughly 20% efficient of electric energy in, electricity has to be real cheap and gasoline has to be real expensive. In the range of below $5 a gallon for gasoline, and above 10 cents a kwh, electric cars cannot compete with regular old cars. . “Additionally, when it comes time for critical mass deployment of electric cars, the current generation will be able to replace up to 73% of U.S. conventional car fleet with all-electric vehicles or PHEVs, according to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, but only if the charging times are carefully managed.” ---------------- The cops, through BGE – can turn you power and gas on and off remotely. “They will be able to handle a minimum of hourly meter reads, to monitor voltage, to accept remote programming instructions, to be reconnected and disconnected remotely, to communicate outage restoration events, and to support net metering and bidirectional metering. “ ------------------- Quoting the Maryland Governor, see below, “ Smart Meters also give us all the power to lower our electric bills by choosing to run the dishwasher or the clothes dryer during off-peak hours.” I don’t use and I can’t afford a dishwasher, and I don’t use and I can’t afford a gas/electric drier. I hang my clothes up to dry. ------------------ As an expert in renewable energy since the 1973 oil embargo - see www.zwind.com, I guarantee you that there will never – never is a very long time – be more than one tenth of one percent renewable energy in the BGE service territory short of burning firewood for power plants. There is absolutely not enough wind or sun by an order of magnitude to justify solar and wind renewable energy. “This initiative will also help to support the proliferation of all-electric vehicles and (including plug-in hybrid vehicles or PHEVs, as well as distributed renewable generation resources.” ------------------- “The Smart Grid Initiative calls for the universal deployment over a five year period of AMI meters and modules for approximately 1.36 million electric meters and 730,000 gas meters.” BGE first off the cuff estimate figure is almost a $B for smart meters costs, for ~ two million meters, let us start with the figure of only $500 a meter, again, just for starters. I think $500 a house could be just installation. I would put a figure of at least $2,000 just for the meter per house, not counting internal wiring and software. Only God knows what the telemetry-communications connection and command and control systems will cost. So a house with a gas and electric meter will cost a lot more than $1,000, again just for starters, just for the meter maybe, not even thinking about the rest of systems. Just think of the conservation, energy efficiency work that can be done for a $1,000 per house. Just for starters. FOR EVERY HOUSE. -------------------- I can’t wait till the fight between Comcast Cable TV, Verizon phone, and BGE for my TV, internet, and phone service deal bundle. “The communication system between the meter and the customer premise via the ZigBee chip will enable a wide variety of consumer products for managing energy usage and automating other activities within the home.” BGE might as well hook up the Smart Meter with the metro water meters too so they can charge you differently for you time of day of when you flush too. -------------------------- I can’t wait for advertising and junk mail that BGE will be sending to my display at home. “Further into the future, the Company would be able to use two-way communications capabilities to send information to customers through in home displays. Eventually, appliances in homes and businesses may be connected to the Smart Grid using the ZigBee communication chip and may be able to directly respond to high energy prices. The business that BGE partners within the smart meter system, will be the Big Brother, that will know and sell you anything and everything. If they can only bring back the milkman, maybe that will good thing. BGE will know when you get up at night to eat your cereal because BGE will know that you opened your refrigerator door, let alone turn on the kitchen light. BGE even tells the PSC now that they are really going to milk us with the smart meters. “There are also added benefits to retail suppliers related to the provision of more immediate and detailed information regarding their customers' accounts. BGE and third party suppliers will be able to leverage this new infrastructure to offer differentiated pricing arrangements. “ I can’t wait until the Bank of France calls me offering me a BGE credit card to pay my electric bill. ------------------ BGE will be billing you and collecting my money every day, if not every hour or every minute. You won’t be able to hold off paying you gas and electric bill for months as was in the good old days. “BGE is proposing SEP as the standard rate schedule for residential electric customers and the Peak Time Rebate program would be rolled out as soon as the underlying communication systems required to collect data and bill customers are in place. “ ----------------- Keep your old meters now. Having an old meter will be a premium value to your house. “The existing residential electric rate schedules will then be phased out as customers move to AMI meters. All new residential electric customers will be put on the SEP rate schedule. “ ______________ Remember, the time of use TOU, is re –programmable and will constantly be changing just like how Power Pools / independent system grid operators buy, sell, and market power as how PJM works locally. So you can imagine, the rate gaming that will happen in the future with the smart meters in the scenario of Enron with the California Independent System Operator - Cal ISO back almost 10 years ago which caused the California electric crisis when the natural gas pipelines going to California exploded from what I believe was damage from installing fiber optic lines along the gas transmission pipelines. “The rate schedule would be comprised of a Peak Time Rebate – a payment to customers to discourage peak time consumption – and a two part time-of-use rate schedule with higher onpeak generation charges during the time period of 2 PM to 7 PM on weekdays in the calendar months of June through September, excluding certain holidays. “ The big picture here is computing and communications power. The whole Apollo moon shot launch control and space craft had less computing power and communications bandwidth than the computer and internet connection that you are reading me on. Now, BGE plans to use the command and control power of a space shot to sell you electricity and natural gas, at least for starters. BGE is really ahead of any other utilities in selling home appliances which they have been doing for decades sometimes called BGE Home. Few if any other utilities sell refrigerators, washers, dryers and other home appliances that you can just pay for by billing to your electric bill. One of the best kept secrets that few people comprehend is that BGE, like other utilities, have a vast amount consumer information on nearly every one. BGE must know when, how, and from where you pay your bill every month going back forever. I just wonder how far back and accessible their data of billing and collection goes. In any acquisition, or if you call it a take over, of a utility, the buyer should value the consumer data history and consumer data that will be collected going forward. --------------- “Overall, these new systems will be integrated with BGE’s legacy applications to support new business capabilities.” Here in BGE says that this is a start of additional cross subsidization beyond gas and electric. -------------- “Smart Grid Related Communications Network and Cyber-Security” BGE doesn’t know what they are going to do for a communications network. As far as cyber security, I am quite skeptical. With such a spread out system, I don’t believe the smart grid, if ever built, will be reasonably secure. -------- There is no incentive for BGE to not spend ratebase money even for the smart grid really is of no net benefit. This is how regulated utilities generally work, the more they spend the more they make. It is like getting a commission for going out and shopping with someone else’s money. “Return on net investment based on the Company’s most recent authorized rate of return, adjusted for taxes” ----------- - end – Ken Bosley, MA Energy Consultant PO Box 585 Sparks, Maryland 21152 410 472 1081 www.zwind.com Bosley@zwind.com
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Smart Grid Scam –Rage Against the Machine

August 1, 2009
PrintEmail to a Friend

* Analysis by: GLG Expert Contributor
* Analysis of: Expedited review for BGE 'smart meter' plan meets opposition
* Published at: www.baltimoresun.com

Summary

Disconnected starving people can’t use the Smart Grid. There is an electric and gas glut. People won't be paying for energy at any price. The BGE smart grid scam is the beginning of the end for the Smart Grid scam world wide. Remember, the Smart Grid was stopped by a wind energy consultant in Maryland.
Analysis

Yuppie scum in McMansions want the smart grid. Spoiled green brats want the smart grid. Geeks want the smart grid toys. Real people don’t need it and can’t use it. You got to have it. You got to do it. You got to want it now. Everybody is getting it. You will save hundreds on your bill. What is next? An Ethernet cable in your belly button and a WIFI nose ring.
Did someone say depression? Ssssh. Disneyland is empty. No body is buying nothing. The smart grid will solve all your problems. Blow into your smart grid Command Control scene and Uncle Slim Pickens will rev up a windmill for you a thousand miles away to recharge your electric Barbie doll. Not. The Cowboy’s 666 giant windmills are glutting the unused surplus windmill market. Big Hat, no Cattle. Is the closed giant windmill factory in England still occupied by the protesting laid off workers?
Ontario’s power glut has shut down any more windmill projects. The hundred-year-old grid works fine. Canada sends down power on hot days to New York at the sped of light. There is no power gap. There is a power glut. The smart grid would not have stopped the 2003 black out. The grid operator didn’t blackout a few zip codes first, when they had the chance, as is standard utility procedure to preserve the grid.
How are we going to pay for the smart grid? What are we supposed to do with it? Think of all the money you are going to save from the smart grid.
With the home Smart Grid Command Center, you can play Star Trek Mr. Scott and Mr. Sulu routing your last kilowatt-hour from the phasor banks to life support. When the smart grid is about to disconnect you for not paying your bill, just try to tell it to wait another couple of kilowatt hours while you finish cooking your dog on the stove. You ate the last of his dog food yesterday.
This author consults with leading institutions through GLG
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Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.

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