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<\/a><\/p>\nSmart Meters are a Dumb Idea!<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Eugene Water & Electric\u00a0Board\u00a0Tries to Sell Customers for Cash<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Scott Rohter, September 2013<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The business of providing electricity to the residents of Vida and about\u00a0three\u00a0thousand\u00a0nearby electric utility\u00a0customers\u00a0is being offered for sale to another\u00a0electric utility\u00a0company for the cold hard cash that EWEB needs to expand some of their other operations. These “other operations” are not a part of EWEB\u2019s original\u00a0charter which is\u00a0to provide clean water and safe and\u00a0reliable electricity to all of its customers. Ever since there has been electricity in my community it has always been provided by the Eugene Water and Electric Board and that is the way I want it to stay. They installed all the electric poles in the ground and they laid every foot of the power lines that connect\u00a0Vida to the grid. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When the power goes out up here as it inevitably does\u00a0every winter because of tree limbs\u00a0which break off and fall\u00a0on the power lines shorting them out, interrupting the transmission of power,\u00a0there is nobody that can restore\u00a0power faster than the people who built the system. They know every inch of this territory and every part of their electic grid\u00a0like the back of their hands and\u00a0I have no desire to freeze in the dark\u00a0longer than I\u00a0need to whenever a tree limb happens to fall on a power line.\u00a0 I have no desire to have my electric service transferred to another electric utility company which will have to undergo a very steep learning curve in order to\u00a0get up to speed and be even half as good as EWEB is.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If this \u201ctransfer of territory\u201d is allowed to go through then another power company would\u00a0be providing my electricity which is\u00a0much smaller than EWEB. They would\u00a0have to\u00a0provide service to many more customers than they are currently used to servicing. This means that they would have to hire many\u00a0additional people…. That means new people who are unfamiliar with the territory.\u00a0 That means longer waits when the power goes down. Currently\u00a0they don’t have enough employees to\u00a0take care of\u00a0these\u00a0additional customers. That sounds like a recipe for disaster and I am not interested in becoming one of Lane Electric\u2019s\u00a0latest guinea pigs.. I want to remain a\u00a0satisfied customer of EWEB. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If EWEB needs\u00a0money to expand its operations into other non-essential areas then let them raise\u00a0funds in\u00a0the usual\u00a0manner by borrowing\u00a0money or selling bonds instead of selling off their\u00a0customers which are\u00a0the\u00a0reason for their existence.\u00a0 These other activities that EWEB wants to\u00a0engage in are\u00a0not\u00a0an essential \u00a0part of their charter.\u00a0Their mission and their responsibilities come first.\u00a0The job of providing safe and reliable electricity might not be as exciting or politically correct as some of these other\u00a0areas that EWEB wants to focus on like green energy, windmills, and wave energy, but providing safe and reliable electricity to its customers is still the main business of an electric utility company.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When EWEB\u2019s new general manager Roger Gray took over the utility company several years ago I was told that he was a smart guy who could reposition EWEB after\u00a0a very\u00a0unpopular 200 foot Lane County overlay map proposal that EWEB supported. This unwelcome initiative tried to confiscate 200 feet of private property from every rural Lane County\u00a0land owner that had\u00a0surface water on their property, and it stirred up enough opposition around here to attract over 500 angry property owners to a Lane County Board of Commissioners Meeting where the proposal was quickly tabled. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Here is the kicker in this whole story to sell part of their territory to another electric utility company. If Lane Electric is allowed to buy this territory from EWEB then Lane Electric will install smart meters on everybody\u2019s house. There is no opt-out available for homeowners who don\u2019t want a smart meter. Lane Electric will install smart meters whether you\u00a0want one\u00a0or not. EWEB does not use smart meters right now, and if they ever\u00a0decide to use them in the future,\u00a0they have already said they will offer an opt-out program for anyone who doesn\u2019t want a smart meter. That’s the way it should be.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I\u00a0was\u00a0curious\u00a0why power companies actually want to\u00a0use these smart meters in the first place so I put that question to the information\u00a0officer\u00a0at EWEB.\u00a0 I asked him if smart meters were actually\u00a0designed to reduce the consumption of electricity during peak hours as we have\u00a0been led to believe by the media.\u00a0\u00a0Were they going to offer reduced rates for electricity during off peak hours? In other words are smart meters actually designed to modify\u00a0a customer\u2019s use of electricity. I was all prepared to tell him what a dumb idea that was. People are not going to modify their consumption of electricity just because there is a smart meter on their house. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Customers are more than likely\u00a0going to find themselves just paying more\u00a0money for the electricity they use during the peak hours when they use it. If electric utility companies really wanted to modify their customer\u2019s use of electricity then a much better idea would be for private businesses to simply stagger their employee\u2019s work\u00a0hours in the morning so that one third of the employees in a given area would start work at 7AM, another third would start work at 8AM, and another third would start work at 9AM. This could\u00a0all be done voluntarily. Then\u00a0people would all not\u00a0be using their toasters and coffee pots at the same time every morning, or turning on their ovens at the same time every evening.\u00a0That makes sense to me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I was very surprised to learn that the modification of a customers use of electricity is not the main reason that power companies are installing smart meters. The\u00a0real reason for smart meters is\u00a0simply to save money by eliminating the jobs of meter readers\u2026 Now how stupid is that? More Americans are out of work now than at any time in our Nation\u2019s history except for during the Great Depression, and these schlemiels in charge of our nation’s electric utility companies are looking for <\/span><\/span>ways to save money by eliminating more jobs. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In conclusion I think that EWEB should stick to the business of managing their\u00a0entire service territory and providing safe and reliable electricity to all<\/span> of their customers. Lane Electric should manage their territory. I do not support this\u00a0transfer of EWEB\u2019s McKenzie River Valley territory to Lane Electric. The only thing being passed around here is a bunch of\u00a0horsepucky and I am opposed to it. I am going to try to make sure that no money changes hands either.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If you liked this article please sign up for my free RSS Newsfeed at the top of this article and also at www.lessgovisthebestgov.com<\/a> Then join me and other patriots at www.wepluribus.net<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Selected Reading<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n http:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/Property-Rights-Oregon-Lane-Water-Quality.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/Property-Rights-Oregon-Lane-Reset-Button.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>I received a letter the other day from my electric utility company telling me that they were exploring something\u00a0called a \u201cservice territory transfer\u201d. \u00a0<\/i>I thought to myself, \u201cWhat the heck is that?\u201d Exploration is something\u00a0that you do in outer space,\u00a0not right here in my backyard… What the heck is a service territory transfer anyway? What is being transferred, to whom, and why?\u00a0So to satisfy my concern I called the Eugene Water and Electric Board and I asked them about it. I quickly learned that nothing was actually being transferred. Something was\u00a0really being s SOLD\u00a0to another electric utility company!\u00a0 That something was me\u2026 \u00a0Actually it was me and about\u00a0three thousand\u00a0of EWEB’s other good customers. T<\/span><\/span>his\u00a0is what I learned\u2026 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>I would like to address\u00a0my following remarks to the management and the elected\u00a0officials of the Eugene Water and Electric Board. You are proposing\u00a0an outrageous suggestion. You want to sell off part of your service territory to another\u00a0electic utility company in return for the cash to\u00a0provide other non-essential services that are not\u00a0in your charter to do. Providing electricity to ALL OF YOUR CUSTOMERS is actually\u00a0your mission. It is the main reason for your existence. It seems to me that Mr. Gray is making the same mistake that his predecessor made. He is not taking into consideration the all of EWEB\u2019s customers. The people who live in the outlying areas of Lane County like Vida, Oregon are<\/span> in EWEB\u2019s territory. At least this time we are being informed early enough in the process to get involved and stop this transfer. That much EWEB did learn\u00a0from their last public relations fiasco. The first public meeting is on September 17th at 5:30pm at the McKenzie Fire and Rescue building in Leaburg. Please be there.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n