The Infamous Smart Meter

In my previous post I wrote about energy efficiency and how the Smart Grid can help us develop better ways of generating and transmitting energy. One component of the Smart Grid that is currently attracting a lot of media attention is the Smart Meter. Considering all of the controversy surrounding the installation of Smart Meters around the country, especially here in California, I thought it would be a good idea to learn more about the benefits they can provide as well as examine some of the concerns being raised by various groups.

So what exactly is a Smart Meter? A Smart Meter is a device that keeps a record of a household’s energy consumption. It gathers data on how much electricity is being used, at what times, and by what appliance (e.g., fridge, air conditioner, etc). This information is transmitted wirelessly to utility companies throughout the day, usually in intervals of one hour or less, and is made available to consumers in an online account. Meter proponents argue that they allow consumers to reduce their electricity bills because they are made aware of their energy consumption patterns and can see in detail how energy is being used in their homes. In addition to these savings, some utility companies are rewarding consumers with lower prices if they reduce their consumption during times of high demand; information that utility companies can relay to consumers through in-home displays or even text messages. The additional benefit from Smart Meters is that overall demand for electricity should drop because consumers would be using their power more efficiently. This would be good for the environment because less demand = less coal burning = less greenhouse gases.

                What’s the problem then? Well, things don’t always work exactly as planned. Some homes that have had Smart Meters installed have actually had their electricity bills increase! For example, an article from USA Today reports that one California woman’s bill went from $450 a month to $1800 after a Smart Meter was installed in her home. Similar cases have been reported to utility companies nationwide and there are growing concerns that these new meters are inaccurate. However, utility companies deny this and have said that the new meters are more accurate than the old ones, which is why their bills have gone up. Right.

                Another major concern raised by opponents is that Smart Meters pose a health risk to society. Since Smart Meters transmit information wirelessly, opponents argue that they expose people to radiation from radio frequencies, which can be harmful. Several people have reported symptoms such as nausea, migraines, muscle spasms, and insomnia after Smart Meters were placed in their homes or neighborhoods. However, there is no scientific link between Smart Meters and any adverse health effects. A study by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) found that the radio frequency emissions from Smart Meters were way below the FCC safety guidelines. Comparing Smart Meter radio emissions to other common household items also shows that they actually emit less radiation than other products.

                Finally, a third concern that caught my attention has to do with privacy. There is a concern that utility companies will sell our energy consumption data to third-parties. Worse, hackers who are able to break into the system and access our data would know “…personal details about the lives of consumers, such as their daily schedules (including times when they are at or away from home or asleep), whether their homes are equipped with alarm systems, whether they own expensive electronic equipment such as plasma TVs, and whether they use certain types of medical equipment” (Department of Energy). Scary stuff.

                After learning more about Smart Meters and some of the issues being raised, I’m a little divided on where I stand. I do want our country to become more energy efficient, but it seems like there are still a lot of holes that need to be filled. I think privacy is very important to a lot of people, so if utilities and policy makers want consumers to get on board they’re going to have to make data security a top priority. But since this information will be up on the web, can it really ever truly be safe?

Keeping Up with Demand: The Smart Grid

The film “End of Suburbia” and the discussions we had in class about peak oil and our dependence on cheap energy really got me thinking about just how incredibly important a reliable supply of energy is to our society. If the Media Consumption assignment taught us anything, it’s that technology is deeply embedded in our daily lives.  Cars, refrigerators, TV’s, computers, phones, and most other things we rely on all need energy to function, and as our dependence on technology grows, so will our demand for energy. This is especially true for electricity. But can our current electrical grid keep up with the growth in demand and meet our future needs? Can we expect energy prices to stay relatively stable as the years go by? If you answered no and you wish to these questions, you’re probably right.

Our current grid is not designed to deal with the demands of the 21^st century. According to a Department of Energy Report titled “The Smart Grid: An Introduction,” electricity demand is expected to grow  30% by 2030 and prices are expected to increase 50% over the next 7 years. Demand is being driven by population growth and by consumers’ growing use of technological products. Since 1982, growth in electricity demand has exceeded growth in the grid’s transmission capacities by 25% each year. The closer we get to reaching full capacity, the more problems pop up. Blackouts and brownouts are becoming more common and grid operators are having a hard time responding. What caught my attention from the report was that in the past 40 years there have been five massive blackouts in the U.S. and three of those occurred during the past nine years. Even so, the amount of R&D spending set aside by the utility companies-a critical component for innovation- ranks at the bottom of most industries. Not much change is taking place.

So what is our government doing to try to prevent these foreseeable problems from causing damage in the future? For one thing, the Obama Administration wants to invest in the construction of a Smart Grid. Through the American Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress secured 4.5 billion in funding for the modernization of the electric grid system. This new grid would allow for 2-way communication between energy producers and consumers and would make full use of 21^st century technologies to enhance the electric delivery system by making generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of energy more efficient. Remember those black outs I mentioned earlier? Under our current system customers actually have to call the utility company to report that light has been cut off at their residence. Under the Smart Grid however, grid operators would receive this information almost immediately and would be able to respond much more quickly. Other components of the Smart Grid, such as Smart Meters, would allow for better consumer choices by providing consumers with data on how their energy consumption varies by time of day and by home appliance. The economic theory behind this is that if consumers know how much energy they are consuming and what appliances are using up the most power, they will be able to modify their behavior to optimize their energy use. This should save both utilities and households money since waste would be reduced which would hopefully keep prices down.

It is crucial that our electric grid undergo the proposed transformation as soon as possible. Not only will it generate savings for households, it is also good for the environment. This new smart grid allows for a more efficient implementation of renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind, and since we currently produce half of our energy by burning coal, it would significantly reduce our country’s carbon footprint. This is important considering we're one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases worldwide (see below). I'm looking forward to seeing the Smart Grid in action, because saving the world and some money at the same time doesn’t sound half bad to me.

Technology and Social Interaction

Your task for this assignment is to describe your thoughts on how technology influences social interaction. Do you think the spread of technology has had a positive or negative impact on your everyday face to face interaction? What about for people more generally? What do you think about using the Internet to meet other people (via online dating sites, Craigslist, message boards, fan sites, online gaming, or virtual worlds)? Is connecting to others via online communities a viable way of creating meaningful relationships, or are we neglecting our everyday relationships in favor of these "virtual" relationships? Do we, as a society, need to focus on creating more "real" spaces/public spheres for people to connect, interact, and discuss meaningful political and social issues? 

Technology has had a huge impact on social interaction. It is becoming less and less necessary to occupy the same physical space in order to communicate or share an experience with someone. Computers, Cell phones, Email, Facebook, Twitter, and a myriad of other resources allow individuals to interact in a global network and stay connected to friends and family without the need for face to face interaction.  With the power of the internet at hand, people can choose to spend more time at home and not have to sacrifice being active participants in society. The possibilities seem limitless. Gamers can find a steady stream of opponents, students can take classes online, friends can watch a movie together while everyone sits in their own home, and consumers can have products delivered to their door without ever leaving their seats. Technology is changing the world around us, and it is important that we reflect on how it affects us on a personal level as well as how it affects society as a whole.

In my personal life, the spread of technology has had both a positive and a negative impact on how I interact with others. Perhaps the most positive impact that technology has had on my life is that it has made me more social. Getting my first cell phone allowed me to have conversations with friends that would not have otherwise taken place and social networking sites have allowed me to meet new people as well as get to know my friends better. Most importantly, technology has made it easier to hang out with my friends because contacting them only requires a few clicks. There are however, negative effects that technology has had on my interaction with others. At home, I have noticed that I tend to spend more time on the computer and watching TV than talking to my parents. At school and at work, it’s easier to give someone a call or send them a text or email when I need something than to go meet with them. As a consumer, I prefer to buy something online and have it delivered than having to actually go to the store and socialize with people. Technology has made me somewhat of a couch potato since most of my day now involves sitting down and staring at a screen.

For society as a whole, I believe that there is a trend toward devoting more time to online interaction and that many people have experienced the same social changes due to technology that I have, especially when it comes to meeting others.  Online relationships are great, and I don’t think using social networking, dating sites, or participating in virtual worlds should be discouraged, but I do think that it is important to physically interact with people as well. When we meet people online, we have to realize that many of them are not being completely honest about who they really are; they are merely using a persona. Also, having hundreds of friends online is great, but I think that it is more important to strengthen our connections with the people we care about instead of trying to create hundreds of hollow relationships with strangers. With the spread of technology, creating these meaningful relationships can sometimes be difficult to do because many times we are distracted and ignore those around us. It’s frustrating when you are trying to have a conversation with someone and they keep checking their phone every couple of seconds or ask you to repeat what you said because they were on Facebook and didn’t hear you.

 It’s hard to compete against the connectivity of the internet and the allure of technology, but I believe that spending time with “real” people is a very important part of our lives and that we should not neglect our close friends and family in favor of anon_what’s-their-face.

Social Networking and Privacy

Your task for this assignment is to record your thoughts on the prevalence of social networking. How often do you use social networking sites/tools like Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare? How much time to do you spend texting, tweeting, or checking status updates on your phone or computer?
Do you think the cultural move toward social networking, constant access, and the loss of privacy it sometimes brings about is a positive/negative trend on the whole? What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of this entanglement between our personal lives and technology?  Have you ever "over-shared" or texted, tweeted, or posted something you have regretted? Do you ever worry about your privacy when it comes to using these tools?

Whether we are out spending time with friends, watching TV, surfing the web, or using our phones, the presence of social networking can always be felt. It seems that almost every time I go hang out with friends, be it at the mall or movie theaters, someone is always on the phone updating their Facebook status or looking through profiles. While on the web, “Like” icons appear across websites, encouraging me to share all of my interests with the world. When watching TV, commercials instruct me to visit a company’s Facebook or Myspace page if I want to buy or find out more about their products, and news outlets want me to follow them on Twitter. Social networking is everywhere in today’s society and reaches each of us in one form or another.

Although I tried to resist at first, I have also joined this social trend and created a MySpace page in high school and a Facebook page in college. I can honestly say that both have been a tremendous waste of time for me, especially MySpace, since I had to customize my page until it looked just right. Although I personally do not like to share much information or post many pictures, I have spent many hours going through profiles and learning things about people who do like to share such things; often things I shouldn’t know. Every day I have to battle the impulse (unsuccessfully) of signing in to my account and checking my feed to see what my friends have been up to. I don’t have a phone with internet access, but if I did, I’m sure I would probably be connected all day like many of the people I observe around me.

Social Media has affected society in many ways. For one thing, people are becoming more and more open to sharing personal information about their lives and some seem comfortable with the idea that their “friends” know so much about them. Most people using these sites see no problem with telling the world where they live, where they go to school, where they work, or who their family members are and what they look like. I think this is something to be concerned about because once something goes online, it never goes away and you never know who might be lurking. Social networking has also affected the way we interact with each other. With the ability to stay connected to technology all the time, people are more likely to send a text or post a message on someone’s wall when they want to say something than to give them a phone call or tell them in person. And even when people are in a room together, it can sometimes feel like everyone is in their own little world, because someone is always on their phone or laptop doing something else.

On the other hand, there are some real benefits to social networking. For one, it allows you to find and connect with long lost friends or stay connected to your family when away from home. Most importantly, social networking allows individuals to organize and communicate information quickly. This can be a powerful tool, as we have seen recently with the protests in Iran and Egypt. Information is power, and social networking allows the populace access to that information which I believe is important for democracies to exist. It is because of this reason that I believe, on the whole, that social networking has had a positive impact on society even after accounting for the negative effects. Social networking is a tool; it is only bad if we aren’t cautious about the information we post about ourselves and others or if we waste our time surfing through profiles when we could be having a meal with friends or enjoying a nice walk down the beach.