Smart meters touted for ability to help conserve, but critics are skeptical

Smart meters touted for ability to help conserve, but critics are skeptical

Argus Leader

Thom Gabrukiewicz

November 10, 2009

Empowering electric customers to save money through conservation is the government’s great hope for smart metering, but not everyone buys into the technology.

Some have concerns about just who would benefit financially, consumer or utilities.

Others are anxious about an intelligent grid that collects and stores billions of bits of data – like when you get home, take a vacation or even microwave a bag of popcorn.

Proponents say fears of price gouging and creation of a “Big Brother” state are unfounded.

Quotes from Jules Polonetsky:

“Clearly, there are huge benefits to society as a whole with a functional smart grid,” said Jules Polonetsky, co-chair and director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that looks to promote responsible data practices. “But there is going to be huge amounts of data created. They may not realize it yet, but utility companies are about to become the leader in data collection and storage. And these companies need to figure out the rules now, before this avalanche of data comes. I think (Commerce Secretary Gary Locke) was correct when he said privacy concerns could be unintentional Achilles’ heel of the smart grid. Those decisions concerning data collection need to be thought out now because it’s hard to layer them on later.”

Figuring out ‘what to do with all this data’

On the same October day as Obama spoke about modernizing the grid, the Information Trust Institute at the University of Illinois announced its partners had been tapped by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to pay for an $18.8 million, five-year study to secure it.

Their charge, reports Wired, is to make the modern grid resistant to hackers and all other attackers.

“Security issues are getting a lot of attention,” Polonetsky said. “Privacy issues are not the same thing. Utilities have to figure out what to do with all this data – should it sit around forever? Should it be destroyed in a timely manner? And somehow, they need to deliver their intentions clearly so that consumers are comfortable with it.”

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