Smart Meter Opt Out

[Farm Boy]

At my place the fee was much more if you opt out. They said they have to charge the extra cost to have some one come drive to my place to read the meter. In my case, I'm glad my meter was upgraded, because my meter was spinning even though the main was turned off. It was all most 40 yrs old at that point. My usage now is lower, go figure the rates are up now and don't really make a difference. I have the added feature to see usage sent back and daily usage but off grid most of the time. You can't fight the power company, there about like the gov. Unless you have a lot of money to blow, for me there's a lot of other areas for my concern. Being off grid gives me more options to control what my payment is based on.

 

[Farm Boy]

I would bet, if you call them to have them turn your power off, like going on a vacation or related reason, they would still charge you the line charge.

 

[Tulex]

I don't have a smart meter, electricity company gets a reading from me every month entered online, if they query it a timestamped digital photo of the meter emailed to them, sorts the issue.

That's how we do it. Originally, we were supposed to send a picture once a year. We never did, they have never asked. Been 5 years now.

 

[hwy17]

How do you figure. You said there should be a fee to cover the cost of people reading meters. That cost already exists, we are already paying for it. If smart meters eliminate that need, the cost won't be there. If they want to say the cost of smart meters and the infrastructure equals the cost of manual readers, fine, charge for smart meters. But the cost of reading analog meters is already cooked into the billing. Me not getting a smart meter doesn't add anything.

That cost reduction is already baked into the rates. They don't wake up one day and go "wow we installed these smart meters and we're suddenly saving money by surprise". The utility and PUC would have negotiated this in advance in the rate case.