[Boatanchors] "Smart" Electric Meters

[Mark Richards]

> 
>> I read yesterday in a newspaper article that my  local electric utility
>> company, Portland General Electric Co., is raising the  rates to pay for
> installing
>> so called "smart electric meters". The article did  not go into any
> technical
>> detail, but it said these meters would be able to be  read remotely and
>> eventually they would have a situation where they could  remotely regulate
> some
>> aspects of customers power usage during peak hours. My  concern is that
> these
>> meters will be a source of RF interference similar to BPL.  Anybody have
>> experience with these "smart meters"?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Roger K7DDG
>>

Maybe with the recent court decision favouring the ARRL's rather sane 
arguments questioning the (I believe) corrupt process the FCC used to 
approve BPL means that the utilities see the writing on the wall: these 
technologies will be fairly evaluated and, as in all the other (more) 
developed nations, seen as undesirable.

/m