Galt's Gulch

TYRANNY: Smart Grid To Transfer Personal Data & Control Signals Via Broadband In Powerlines | The Bell News

Posted by UncommonSense 12 years, 2 months ago to Technology
6 comments | Share | Flag

He did say he was going to fundamentally change America...this is something he's actually backing up with action. I guess the DHS goons will be stationed at every power station to deter would be freedom fighters from taking them out...of course, they'll know somethings up when they find out that suspect place X hasn't used their allotted electricity.
SOURCE URL: http://thebellnews.com/2013/04/07/tyranny-smart-grid-to-transfer-personal-data-control-signals-via-broadband-in-powerlines/

Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

    -
  • Posted by John_Emerson 12 years, 2 months ago
    I'm afraid the IEEE motives are not that sinister. The governvironmentalists are making it more and more difficult to add generating capacity. "Smart meters" simply allow tracking energy usage over smaller units of time. This, in turn, will allow "real-time pricing" - the price per Kilowatt-hour will vary depending on when you use the electricity-not just "in what month" but in what hour of the day. Have your smart washer programmed to wash your clothes in the middle of the night, when demand is low, and you pay a few cents less than if you wash your clothes in mid-afternoon on a hot day, when demand is high. When demand is low, the power companies only run their most efficient plants - it costs them less to generate power than during peak demand times, when they have more plants, and less-efficient plants, on-line. Smart appliances are intended to allow the manufacturer to collect data to help boost the reliability of their appliances. That said, it's not impossible to imagine a scenario in which the NSA would want to listen in. How much useful data they'd get is the question. There are much easier ways for them to spy on people.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
      -
    • Posted by UncommonSense 12 years, 2 months ago
      "Smart appliances are intended to allow the manufacturer to collect data to help boost the reliability of their appliances." Yes, that could be true, but it could also be a great cover story.

      Given the kind of people who are in charge of companies & government agencies these days, I don't trust any of them. I can easily see a day in which these tyrants would say "We're sorry for the inconvenience Mr. Emerson, but you used up your monthly allottment of Electricity based on what our perceived understanding of your "need" is. You'll have to complain to your local politboro, otherwise, it'll be only another 4 days until we turn it on again.

      Basically, if there is a capability for them to exploit a technology, they won't hesitate to use it. No company needs to know what I do, when I do it, and for how long, why, etc. They need to get used to this line: "None of your damn business. You supply, I use, I pay. Simple."
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        -
      • Posted by John_Emerson 12 years, 2 months ago
        But they could do that now, without smart-grid technology - and have. I'm old enough to remember rolling blackouts in California - a response to bureaucrats interfering with the law of supply and demand. Smart grid technology just makes the law of supply and demand work on a finer scale, allowing the price of electricity to go up and down in response to supply and demand on an hour-by-hour basis, rather than on a month-by-month basis: here in Illinois we have "summer" rates and "winter" rates, so I end up paying more for electricity used at 3AM on a cool July morning, when demand is low, than I do at 5 PM on a cold winter's day (when demand is high), because the historical average demand is higher in summer - and there's nothing I can do about it. With real-time pricing, I can adjust my schedule, doing things that require a lot of electricity but aren't immediate or daytime needs late in the evening, early in the morning, or on weekends, when demand is lower and prices are down. Like I said, there are easier ways for NSA to spy and DHS to control.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by khalling 12 years, 2 months ago
          there needs to be a reporting system that does not plug into a central system without many encryptions. It seems that more and more, things offered back to us as conveniences (before they were charges, taxes by the govt) are now these smart helpful 'fixes" which are one more personal intrusion.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
  • Posted by flanap 12 years, 2 months ago
    I find it interesting that this forum/website has ad after ad for google products which we know are in the vanguard for ubiquitous surveillance, then members post links as in this topic obviously against them...you cannot have it both ways can you?
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo