In the interview on Vermont Public Radio, “In Smart Grid
Debate, Co-ops Pick Hard-Wire Over Wireless To Cut Cost ,”
the remarks by the president of Washington Electric Co-op,
Avram Patt, in favor of
wired smart meters were quite persuasive. He gave
specific information and advantages. By contrast, the
spokesman for CVPS gave no reasons at all for CVPS and GMP
to select wireless smart meters over the wired smart meters
Washington Electric Co-op has had in service for several
years.
Sure, wireless provides a major advantage if you can
avoid stringing wire, which is expensive. Wireless is a huge
advantage for mobile systems. And for rotating systems.
But our houses are standing still. Each of our houses
and businesses are already wired. No substantial
infrastructure is needed for CVPS or GMP to choose a wired
system because electric wires, phone wires and TV cables are
already in place, and any of those existing wires can be
used for the two-way communication, as described by the
consultant to the Public Service Board on pages 26-32 of
their report.
According to this report, the system called “power
line communication” uses the already existing electric wires
between the house and the company. The system requires no
radio. Also according to this report, such public networks
as landline telephone lines, Internet, satellite and
cellular systems can be used for communicating the
information from the meter. The report points out that “In
fact, utilities that have deployed RF systems quite often
use public networks for the small percent of customers that
are difficult or too costly to reach using RF technology.”
Digital signals travel very nicely over the electric
wires already connected to each and every house and business
in Vermont. Whether the connection be along those electric
wires or along telephone wires, fiber optic lines or cable
already present for TV, wired smart meters provide far more
secure communication that is much harder to intercept than
the RF technology planned by CVPS and GMP. More megabits per
second can be sent over wire than wirelessly. Communication
is much less prone to transmission errors. Wired is far more
energy efficient. Wired works as well over hilly terrain as
over flat. Wired allows a similar range of services as
wireless. Most of the wired communication schemes have no RF
safety concerns. And Patt cited both technological and cost
advantages.
The difference between wired communication and
wireless is not what is measured by the meter or what is
communicated back to the company. It is just a matter of how
the digital signal from the meter is communicated: either
through electric wire, telephone wire, optical fiber or
cable, or as a radio signal. For a smart grid application
where the houses are staying in one place, and a choice of
wires is already in place, good reason need be provided for
forcing wireless on Vermonters.
At a Senate hearing a CVPS vice president testified
that only wireless met the requirements CVPS sent out for
bid. But the vice president did not reveal what the
requirements were that could not be met by wired smart
meters. Nor did he say why these unstated requirements were
essential for CVPS and GMP but were not essential for
Washington Electric Co-operative.
A Jan. 14, 2011, New York Times article, “Calif.
Agency Mulls ‘Opt Out’ or Wired Substitutes as Fallout Over
Smart Meters Persists ” states,“In separate interviews,
California Public Utilities Commission members Nancy Ryan
and Timothy Simon said they were open to looking at new
policies that would either let ratepayers reject smart meter
installation outright or pursue wired rather than wireless
connections.” Similarly, Vermonters may wish the Public
Service Board to require utilities to allow customers to
choose a wire connected smart meter instead of the wireless.
The Vermont Public Service Board may consider that the $10
per month additional fee the CVPS and GMP are demanding from
customers who opt out of the wireless scheme is
substantially inferior to providing customers with choice of
communications schemes.
Integrating meter reading for electricity, gas and
water with broadband communication for Internet, TV and
phone, as is done in several European countries, could
facilitate fiber to the home or another ultra high speed
communication scheme. The Public Service Board may wish to
consider that providing, instead, separate wireless
communication schemes for each meter reading function and
also separately providing broadband is costly, duplicative,
inefficient and a waste of resources.
In view of the fact that wired smart meters are
already installed here in Vermont by Vermont Electric Co-op
and that two Vermont utilities chose wired smart meters over
wireless, as well as the fact that a system with multiple
types of communication schemes can be accommodated, an
investigation is needed to understand what facts persuaded
CVPS and GMP to attempt to force wireless on all customers.
In the absence of sufficient reason I would urge the Vermont
Public Service Board to reject the application for forced
wireless smart meters and to instead encourage GMP and CVPS
to include wired smart meters as an option. This especially
in view of the fact that, like the Washington Electric
Co-op, GMP and CVPS have many rural customers in hilly
locations, and in view of the above list of advantages of
wired communication, including the cost advantages cited by
co-op President Avram Patt.
Editor’s note: This op-ed is by James Marc Leas, a patent
lawyer from South Burlington who served as a staff physicist
for the Union of Concerned Scientists in the aftermath of
the accident at Three Mile Island.
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