What Worcester Needs to Know About “Smart Grids”

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Emma Bailey, GoLocal Worcester Guest MINDSETTER™

Utility providers across the country have installed so-called “smart meters” in homes and businesses, but at what cost? While these meters are designed to allow providers to better track and help manage their customer’s energy usage, concerned citizens worry that they are a threat to privacy and security.

Smart meters, or advanced meters, are a central component in the creation of a national smart grid system that President Obama has established as a top priority. Despite being located on the periphery of the grids, from a data perspective, the meters lie at the core of all new data-driven electric-energy infrastructure.

The Worcester National Grid smart meter pilot program, one of the first of its kind to be rolled out in US, began in mid-January. Local utility provider National Grid launched the two-year “Smart Energy Solutions” program at the start of 2015 in an effort to provide customers with new pricing plans and ways to monitor their energy efficiency. According to Ed White, the vice president of customer strategy and environment with National Grid, the implementation of these meters “puts the control back in the hands of the customers.”

The new meters utilize a ZigBee mesh network to relay communications between the utility company and the greater grid system. The information collected by the meter is sent to a digital picture frame located in the customer’s home, allowing them to review current and historical energy usage patterns easily. From there, consumers have the ability to make adjustments to energy use where needed in order to reduce both environmental impact and utility bills.

Participation in the pilot program was was initially offered to 15,000 Worcester residents. According to White, there were those that did choose not to take part. Some, he said, simply couldn’t be bothered, while others had “a strong objection” to the new meter technology.

“I look at it like cell phones,” he said. “When they first came into existence, many people didn’t believe in them. But look at us now.”

The new meters can also communicate with other smart home components, such as thermostats and air conditioners. This gives customers the option of adjusting and automating set temperature points, helping to reduce wasted energy. They also enable individuals to control when home appliances are used, resulting in a greater ability for the consumer to determine when they want to use electricity (and at what price).

However, the meters’ connection to the Internet of Things allows for information to be gathered on much more than just energy usage. It gives energy providers insight into the lives of users, charting behavior patterns and daily living routines. By enabling additional connections to the smart grid, we can also anticipate that health care devices, entertainment gadgets, and other electronic devices will also be part of centralized data collection systems sooner rather than later.

In response to these privacy concerns, the U.S. Department of Energy recently released a voluntary code of conduct (VCC) for smart meters. While the goal of the VCC is to ease the minds of consumers, it does little to provide comfort about the threat of cyber-security attacks or leakage of personal energy usage data. Instead, it designates each utility company to take ownership of a security department which will be trained to follow unreleased local and national regulatory laws placed by the government.

Some utility providers are themselves concerned about the new smart meter technology. Northeast Utilities released a statement saying that “without resolution of the [issues related to cyber-security, it is not possible...to develop a suitable [smart meter implementation plan].” They go on to state that the meters provide a greater risk of hacking than originally depicted due to the meters’ access to providers’ information systems.

Many communities, including Worcester, have tried to assuage these and other fears about smart grid-to-home applications. When smart meter deployments have encountered resistance in many communities, the focus of concern has often been whether or not smart meters cause illness. As of this writing, neither the federal government nor smart grid overseers have initiated a single public health study concerning the long-term health effects of exposure to “advanced” meters’ electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Anecdotal reports have cited headaches, insomnia, heart problems, nausea, joint pain and tinnitus as potential health complications associated with EMR exposure. However, studies of smart meters have shown that, when active, they emit no more radiation than a cell phone - often less - so for now it seems that they’re as safe as other common technology.

At present, Empowering Worcester's building managers and residents with energy consumption feedback gives everyone the potential to act on that information, and curb unnecessary spending on utilities. While concerns about data and health exist, they mirror other concerns about new technology and our increasingly connected, always-online society, and don’t seem to be significant enough to outweigh the positive effects of having a “smarter” grid distributing energy more effectively. As the smart grid continues to evolve, we can expect home and building owners alike to gain more flexible, autonomous control over their energy usage.

Emma Bailey is a freelance technology writer out of Chicago. She is from Central Massachusetts and still has family living in the Commonwealth. Bailey is a writer and tech enthusiast that follows smart grid technology with great enthusiasm.