Vote No to KIUCs Opt Out fees. More Letters to the Editor on Smart Meters. Apollo Kauai showed their (green washed) true colors at a KIUC forum they hosted last year when they allowed KIUC Board Member Jan TenBruggencate to moderate and censor all smart meter related questions. Microwave emitting, privacy invading smart meters on every home is not a green energy future. Concerns about health, privacy I have genuine health and privacy concerns regarding KIUC’s smart meter program. The information on their Smart Meter FAQ page is confusing at best. The meter reading fee is both $10.27 and $10.58? Somehow, six meter readers read 30,000 meters costing $800,000 annually, whereas three are needed for 3,000 meters at a cost of $340,000. It costs 50 cents per customer to read meters on the Mainland, compared to $10.27 on Kauai; 20 times the national average. Their site states: “By switching to smart meters, KIUC planned to eliminate all meter reading costs.” How can they expect 100 percent compliance, given members had a choice to opt out? KIUC has 3,000 smart meters “sitting on a shelf in a warehouse,” creating storage costs. Again, I thought members had a choice to opt out? The site explains “research on the effects of all types of radio frequency emissions is ongoing,” but doesn’t explain specifically why they’re “confident smart meters are not a threat to health, safety or privacy.” Recently, a national retailer’s data was hacked with 70 million customers’ private data compromised. KIUC notes “strong policies and internal systems that protect member’s data” they’ve “adopted” adequately protects 30,000 members’ privacy. I need further convincing evidence. On another subject, after installing solar farms in Koloa and Kapaa, adding 12MW of energy to the grid, (roughly one-fourth of Kauai’s daily consumption), our cost per kWh stays the same. None of it seems to add up. Simon Beatty Princeville Apollo Kauai supports smart meter yes vote When oil was cheap, the effects of climate change were unknown, and rooftop solar was nonexistent, our old system worked fine. However, none of those are true anymore. We are beginning to realize the true costs of oil in the form of incessant foreign wars, climate change, pollution, oil spills, and deforestation. We are running out of easy-to-access sources of oil, which has caused the price of crude oil to go up 400 percent in the last decade and the mining and use of coal and ‘natural’ gas causing further environmental damage. Now anyone with the financial resources can install a photovoltaic panel on their roof and become an energy net producer. These factors are quickly necessitating a paradigm shift in our utility model. We need to incentivize electricity when it’s readily available (when the sun is shining) and discourage it when it’s not. We have to change the way we look at the flow of electrons. Instead of a one-way line from the central supplier utility to us at a set price, we need to democratize our energy so that electrons become a commodity which we buy, sell, and trade at a market price based on current supply and demand. We can very quickly revolutionize our island by becoming fully participatory members of a completely distributed energy system. KIUC can transition from being a traditional energy supplier to the entity that manages and distributes a market of electrons. And it all starts with smart meters. A smart grid is a necessary first step toward the goal of 100 percent sustainable renewable energy for Kauai. We at Apollo Kauai are voting “yes” to ensure that we can achieve this energy future. Luke Evslin Apollo Kauai Opposed to meters I’ve been listening to KIUC’s frequent advertisements advocating “smart meter customers shouldn’t have to pay for nonsmart meter customers’ fees.” It has been amply demonstrated that smart meters may pose a public health risk. There is widespread opposition to smart meters across the U.S. and Europe for health, security and financial reasons. I personally have experienced sleep loss and mood swings directly related to living with a smart meter on my house. I’ve had mine removed. KIUC is member owned. Why have they chosen to invest so much of our money in something that could seriously damage our health? Dean McRaine Kapaa
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:57:54 +0000