Politics & Government

Local Woman Wins in Drive to Remove SDG&E Wireless Smart Meters

Blogger and activist Susan Brinchman has been lobbying for opt-out rights for nearly two years.

A local woman can claim victory in a two-year drive to restore her old analog electric meter and remove a wireless “smart meter” she blamed for a range of health problems.

A plan to let San Diego Gas & Electric customers keep or restore the analog model was given final approval Thursday by the state Public Utilities Commission.

The opt-out plan was requested by the San Diego-based Utility Consumers Action Network, and also applies to Southern California Edison customers.

Among the strongest advocates of the plan was Susan Brinchman of La Mesa,  director of the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, who in August 2010 posted the first of nearly  on Patch.com.

Her first was headlined Living Nightmare: How SDG&E Smart Meter Led to Headaches, Hearing Loss.

Tentative approval of the arrangement was given last month .
  
Opponents of the smart meters express concerns over perceived health risks and privacy issues.

“As we move toward a more advanced electricity grid, smart meters will offer customers real benefits,’” said PUC President Michael Peevey. “However, if a customer does not want to have a smart meter, our decision today gives them that option.”

SDG&E customers who choose the analog model will have to pay $75 up front and an extra $10 monthly. Consumers in the “California Alternate Rates for Energy’” program would be charged $10 initially and $5 more per month.
  
Those charges will cover the SDG&E’s extra costs for carrying both types of meters, and can be adjusted in the future when the utility’s cost-recovery
requirements are determined.
  
The commission also approved 19 measurements for determining the effectiveness of smart grid technology being rolled out by the utilities, including the number of smart meter malfunctions during power outages, increases in the number of consumer complaints over accuracy of the new devices, and the number of smart meters replaced annually before the end of their expected useful life.

 

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City News Service contributed to this report.


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