Oncor/Obama Energy - What a Bunch of Thieves

Oncor Energy is responsible for delivery of electricity in Texas. They aren't the ones who send electric bills each month - they are the ones who build and maintain the electrical grid. Fairly important people, but pretty much a utility monopoly.

The Texas Public Utility Commission is the regulatory agency that governs Oncor and the myriad of electric providers, such as TXU. Rate changes and other charges have to be approved by the PUC before being implemented by the providers.

About a year ago, Oncor decided it wanted to install digital 'smart' electric meters on each residential customer, replacing the old analog meters. The reason given in public was so to save their customers money. The 'in private' reason was to reduce Oncor's costs - each smart meter has a RF transmitter in it, allowing a meter reader to just drive down the street and collect usage data automatically, instead of actually having to look at each meter.

Oncor was able to convince the PUC that the customers should pay for these smart meters, since they were going to save the customer money. The PUC bought this line of crap, and each residential customer in Texas is paying $2.21 per month for 7 years for the meter. This charge started for everyone at the same time last year, so customers are paying for the meter whether they have one yet or not.

These smart meters do not save the customer any money at all. There is no function in them that lessens the cost of electricity or electrical usage. The only savings are for Oncor, and those savings are not passed to the customer.

OK ... I don't like it, but not nothing I can do about it.

This past week it came to light that Oncor jumped the gun when it signed a contract to purchase all of those smart meters (800,000+ units). They hadn't received approval from the PUC for the meter itself. The PUC finally issued guidelines for the meter, and the one Oncor bought didn't meet the guidelines.

So, Oncor will have to purchase a different smart meter for all residential homes in Texas, and junk the 800,000+ units it had previously bought. Units already installed (like mine) will be removed and replaced with the new-new meter.

Guess who gets to pay for this f**k up? The customer, of course.

So, my bill will not be $2.21 higher per month, it will be over $5 higher per month. And the clock resets to 7 years on the payment - the 8 months of payments for the new meter I've already made just go into Oncor's bank account.

The PUC still has to approve the additional charge, but so far they have not demonstrated to be anything but a rubber stamp for whatever Oncor wants to do.

Now, to the new-new smart meters:

Beware these things, folks. They provide remote reading via RF - no big deal. They also provide much more detailed information about electricity usage to those who want to monitor it - such as how much electricity you use and exactly when. They also have two way communcations - the monitor can send information to the meter (this is one of the functions that the PUC added to the meter specifications after Oncor had bought all of them).

Obama has stated publicly several times that we have to be smarter in use of electricity, and he's hinted at control over electric usage in case the government finds anyone 'using too much'. This meter gives the government the vehicle to do this with - if a regulatory agency decides you use too much, or use too much during certain parts of the day, this meter gives them the capability to shut down or control how much electricity is delivered into your house via remote control - no one has to come to your house to do it. It also gives them detailed reporting, so if the government decides to levy additional taxes on 'over-users', they have the information they need to do so.

Think they won't do it? Look at what they've done so far and tell me this is right wing paranoia.

(The picture at the top is my 'new meter', the one that will have to be replaced by the new-new meter.)