Some years ago, I installed a solar electric system at my home. I recently received a threatening letter from PG&E. It said that unless I installed a Smart Meter (I had opted lout), I'd be charged at a highly undesirable rate, even though I had previously elected a different one, and PG&E had confirmed it, and had given me to understand that I was already being billed according to it. Now suddenly I am told that my present meter cannot tell which hours I am using energy, so I cannot elect a time of use schedule. Only a new Smart Meter can tell them when I am using it.
This, it seems to me, is extremely unlikely. When I first installed a solar system, years ago, I was given the option of going to a time of use schedule, which was then from 12 noon till 6 p.m. All that time, PG&E was able to tell when I was using electricity and supposedly billed me accordingly, even without a Smart Meter. Supposedly, they have also been billing me according to the complicated schedule they themselves offered. Now they find they can't do this any more.
Then they inject a note of panic. Unless you get a new meter installed right away, you may not be able to get one until after the rates change, and until PG&E gets around to you. In the meantime the rate will be horrendous. So don't think, act now!
I deeply resent these thuggish tactics, but unless there is a serious objection from a number of equally outraged people, I, and all in a similar position, will be forced to install one of these devices. There are serious reports of adverse health effects from these, and suspicions about invasion of privacy, and some people have said that their bills went up inordinately.
Does it make sense to you that a meter that once told the hours of use and is supposedly still doing so, suddenly won't be able to do that any more? Is anyone suspicious that a mutually agreed arrangement made with me and countless other customers, has been cancelled so abruptly? With such a bludgeon and such panic? What might be behind this tactic? Might it be more than incompetence?