Despite the known problems, Consumers Energy is forcing Smart Meters on the public.

Consumers Energy tells several lies in this cheerleading article:

Itron Smart Meters do not broadcast once a day. They broadcast 1250 – 26,000 times per day according to California Public Utilities Commission documents which the commission compelled the utility companies to disclose.

The United States National Toxicology Program links this radiation with cancer. The World Health Organization declared it a possible carcinogen back in 2011.

Power outage information is not getting to the company from the meters. Customers still have to phone in an outage.

Pre-paid programs are a terrible idea. They jeopardize the health and safety of low income residents, particularly during the winter or the summer. At least one man froze to death due to a pre-paid scheme. Even though he had the money, he didn’t pay the bill when his prepaid amount ran out because he had dementia.

And the fire risk from these meters is frightening. Itron is known for its thin blades which cause arcing and “dirty” electricity. The company has never taken responsibility for that.

All of this hype by Consumers Energy is false advertising and fraud . There are no benefits except for the utility companies. These meters and their program will cost consumers over and over again. There will never be any savings. The rising costs will take everything. Add the health impacts and fire danger, and this is assault and more.

By Taylor DesOrmeau | tdesorme at mlive.com]
July 29, 2016

JACKSON, MI – There are smart phones, smart watches, smart cars, smart TVs and smart boards.

Now, all Consumer’s Energy customers will have smart meters.

The meters are being installed in Parma and Concord in late August and throughout the rest of Jackson County starting in December.

Smart meters have a communication chip inside that sends a message every night to the company with the amount of energy used for the day. With the new gas and electric meters, customers can view online their hourly energy use.

The digital meter also tells Consumers Energy whenever there’s a power outage.

“It offers our customers the opportunity to go online and look at their hourly energy use,” said Kathryn Burkholder, outreach coordinator for smart energy at Consumer’s Energy. “It gives us an opportunity to offer programs for our customers like a pre-paid program where they can pay as they go.

There are lots of interesting programs available with the new meter technology.”

The new technology will also eliminate estimated bills for customers.

The power goes out for five to 10 minutes during the installation process, however residents are alerted via a postcard, letter and phone call ahead of time and a knock on the door before the installation.

The program costs $750 million, but will save $1.8 billion, Burkholder said.

About 0.5 percent of customers opt out of the service, which costs $69.39 up front and $9.72 a month.

“Some people believe that there are health issues associated with them,” Burkholder said. “They’ll go online and read about the meters causing cancer, which is absolutely untrue. Our meters emit about as much radio frequency as a baby monitor.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2016/07/consumers_energy_to_install_fr.html