Has anyone turned down the PEPCO Smartmeter? [PEPCO Smartmeter Opt Out]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are a lot of posters who just want PEPCO to suck. In June you complain about tree pruning. In late June you complain about outages. In July you are complaining about smart meters.

And then in August, after you have refused any feasible approach to improvement you will deny them rate increases so thru can't spend more to be better. So I imagine in September you will wonder our loud why the wires aren't all underground.

You have got to be kidding me. No one WANTS Pepco to suck - do you really think people want shitty, unreliable electrical service? They DO suck.

With respect to rates, Pepco doubled its operating profit, due in large part to previous rate increases, in 2011. So you'll pardon me if I think the poor-mouthing, "we need more to improve" is a bunch of bullshit. We GAVE you more, and you kept it. Spend some of those profits, start making improvements and if you need more, come back then. But when Pepco seems more interested in padding the bottom line than customer service to its captive audience, it's absurd to claim that improvements can't be made unless customers take it in the shorts.

Really, is there a difference between wanting them to suck and refusing to allow them to take any steps to improve?

As for operating profit? PEPCO's revenues last year were 5.9 billion. They made a profit of 257 million. That's a 4% profit. Does that sound like highway robbery? No, it sounds like really, really low returns.

If you want to know why rates go up and you are dissatisfied, well guess what energy costs have gone through the roof. That doesn't fix the infrastructure.

I don't work for these guys and I don't make money in energy. But lord, you people are a bunch of whiners. If you want to complain, then you need to offer solutions. Solutions require commitment to something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They aren't selling your data, and frankly it reflects poorly on the protesters that they make wild guesses like that without any information. Smart meters improve service by allowing them to better understand load, ID outages, and spot quality problems before you do.

It was only two weeks ago that people were complaining that they got calls saying their service was restored when it wasn't. Gee if only there was a device that could tell them exactly which homes were out.. Oh wait there is.

There are a lot of posters who just want PEPCO to suck. In June you complain about tree pruning. In late June you complain about outages. In July you are complaining about smart meters.

And then in August, after you have refused any feasible approach to improvement you will deny them rate increases so thru can't spend more to be better. So I imagine in September you will wonder our loud why the wires aren't all underground.

I don't think it would be a wise decision to put all the wires underground, although some key lines should be. I want them to be a regulated utility that is held accountable by a strong state regulator.

I want PEPCO to be required to allow more distributed generation in their system, to allow private wire sales within their territory and to actually use the smart grid technology that they are installing to actively manage their system and recover more quickly from weather events. Yes, they are allowed to make a regulated profit from their operations and if they don't like it they should encourage a buyout to turn it into a state or county-owned municipal utility.

The point about the smart grid is good.

But you can't sell wire within a territory unless you carve off an entire geography like Delmarva.

PEPCO is out of the generation business. They buy from the market and so their generation is whatever they can buy at the best price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:smartmeters don't bother me. The "Energy Wise rewards thermostat" bothers me a LOT. Luckily, that is voluntary.

Any chance they'll make those mandatory also? I've read about people having issues with the Energy Wise thermostat and I definitely don't want one. But, I wonder if they can make it mandatory to control electricity usage.

No, they can't do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are a lot of posters who just want PEPCO to suck. In June you complain about tree pruning. In late June you complain about outages. In July you are complaining about smart meters.

And then in August, after you have refused any feasible approach to improvement you will deny them rate increases so thru can't spend more to be better. So I imagine in September you will wonder our loud why the wires aren't all underground.

You have got to be kidding me. No one WANTS Pepco to suck - do you really think people want shitty, unreliable electrical service? They DO suck.

With respect to rates, Pepco doubled its operating profit, due in large part to previous rate increases, in 2011. So you'll pardon me if I think the poor-mouthing, "we need more to improve" is a bunch of bullshit. We GAVE you more, and you kept it. Spend some of those profits, start making improvements and if you need more, come back then. But when Pepco seems more interested in padding the bottom line than customer service to its captive audience, it's absurd to claim that improvements can't be made unless customers take it in the shorts.

Really, is there a difference between wanting them to suck and refusing to allow them to take any steps to improve?

As for operating profit? PEPCO's revenues last year were 5.9 billion. They made a profit of 257 million. That's a 4% profit. Does that sound like highway robbery? No, it sounds like really, really low returns.

If you want to know why rates go up and you are dissatisfied, well guess what energy costs have gone through the roof. That doesn't fix the infrastructure.

I don't work for these guys and I don't make money in energy. But lord, you people are a bunch of whiners. If you want to complain, then you need to offer solutions. Solutions require commitment to something.

Apparently, rates also to up to double Pepco's profits. The point is, you can't increase rates one year to increase profits, then cry poor when asked to improve service levels to a basic level (met, by the way, by other utilities in the area). You seriously don't see the issue people have with that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are a lot of posters who just want PEPCO to suck. In June you complain about tree pruning. In late June you complain about outages. In July you are complaining about smart meters.

And then in August, after you have refused any feasible approach to improvement you will deny them rate increases so thru can't spend more to be better. So I imagine in September you will wonder our loud why the wires aren't all underground.

You have got to be kidding me. No one WANTS Pepco to suck - do you really think people want shitty, unreliable electrical service? They DO suck.

With respect to rates, Pepco doubled its operating profit, due in large part to previous rate increases, in 2011. So you'll pardon me if I think the poor-mouthing, "we need more to improve" is a bunch of bullshit. We GAVE you more, and you kept it. Spend some of those profits, start making improvements and if you need more, come back then. But when Pepco seems more interested in padding the bottom line than customer service to its captive audience, it's absurd to claim that improvements can't be made unless customers take it in the shorts.

Really, is there a difference between wanting them to suck and refusing to allow them to take any steps to improve?

As for operating profit? PEPCO's revenues last year were 5.9 billion. They made a profit of 257 million. That's a 4% profit. Does that sound like highway robbery? No, it sounds like really, really low returns.

If you want to know why rates go up and you are dissatisfied, well guess what energy costs have gone through the roof. That doesn't fix the infrastructure.

I don't work for these guys and I don't make money in energy. But lord, you people are a bunch of whiners. If you want to complain, then you need to offer solutions. Solutions require commitment to something.

Apparently, rates also to up to double Pepco's profits. The point is, you can't increase rates one year to increase profits, then cry poor when asked to improve service levels to a basic level (met, by the way, by other utilities in the area). You seriously don't see the issue people have with that?

You keep saying "double" like it's a dirty word. If you had a quarter, would you feel good if someone doubled it? No, you'd have two lousy quarters. In 2010 PEPCO made nearly zero profit. If you want the thing to run at zero profit, let the government buy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain the real privacy issue here? Anyone can walk up to your house and read your meter. Anyone can watch when your lights go on and off. And the power company can read your meter whenever they want. Unlike practically every orher business they xant use this information to sekl tour name to marketers Shame on them for trying to use information to provide better service.

Ha! Do you know PEPCO? Do you really think the Smartmeter is going to lead to 'better service'? HAHAHAHAHA

My guess is there is some benefit to them. And, if the Public Service Commission is allowing people to opt-out, maybe they think something is up?

probably so they can sell your data to the GE's, Samsungs, Apple's, Bose's of the world. all the benefits they espouse can be achieved through other methods. some financial analysts at PEPCO calculated that the investment in the smartmeters can be paid back in 17 months and after that it is pure icing on their cake. just think of all the data they can package up to sell to the product development folks, the marketers, etc.

There must be some benefit to PEPCO or else they wouldn't be doing it. And if they are spending all this cash to do it, they must have a plan to make that money back.

Ha. Of course there is a benefit to PEPCO for doing this. Like countless other utilities in the US, they are using the Stimulous money to pay for it.
"Pepco has received $68.85 million in federal stimulus grants to help fund Pepco’s smart meter program in Maryland."
http://www.pepco.com/welcome/news/releases/archives/2011/article.aspx?cid=1755

I wonder why they don't just use this money to bury some overhead wires? They already have data transmitters installed in the system.

I like technology and believe that smart meters are a good technology. But don't worry that PEPCO is digging into their pockets to do this.

[Anonymous]

hello, PEPCO! thanks for your wonderful clever
meter. now can you please strategically bury some wires and stop butchering trees?

[Anonymous]

Yes. PEPCO, you really, really suck.

[Anonymous]

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/allow-washington-dc-pepco-customers-to-opt-out-of-havi.html

[Anonymous]

Watch a DC PEPCO "smart" meter going haywire


http://vimeo.com/36960439

[Anonymous]

PEPCO is using two brands of wireless "smart" meters in the District of Columbia: GE and Landis & Gyr


http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/09/self-combusting-smart-meters/ [GE Meter]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/05/03/not-so-smart-meters-overbilling-californians/ [Landis & Gyr]

[Anonymous]

Has PEPCO been accurately reporting "smart" meter problems?

Power surges frying household appliances?

Over billing?

Over heating meters and fires?

Is PEPCO informing the DC Public Service Commission of problems?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think people are contrary out of spite.

It was kind of like the uproar over Google: Who gives a shit if Google knows what I'm searching? I'm just not THAT interesting, and the people who get all worked up over privacy really have an exaggerated sense of their own importance.

Same here. Who cares if Pepco knows your energy usage patterns?

NP here, and I don't know anything about the PEPCO smart meters. I don't think I am anyone important whatsoever, but for me the privacy invasions bother me out of principle. I am not a paranoid freak of a person, either. Like I said, it is the principle of the matter, and the fact that it creeps up on us. Just a little bit more, and a little bit more.

[Anonymous]

I just signed the petition. And I agree with it. i probably don't care about the smart meter, but some people feel very strongly about it and should have the option to opt out.