WESTFIELD – The Water Commission is asking the city’s local legislators to oppose a bill that would allow residents to reject smart meters.
The pending legislation, House Bill 2926, sponsored by Rep. Thomas P. Conroy and state Sen. James B. Eldridge, not only allows residents to “opt out” of smart meter programs and request analogue meters, which have to be read by a meter reader, but prohibits the utility from charging for the additional service needed to support analogue meters.
Both the Westfield Water Resource Department and the Westfield Gas & Electric Department have been switching to the smart meters that carry several benefits, including more accurate data collection, instant data transmission of that data and a cost-avoidance due to reductions in the number of the utility’s meter readers.
Water Resource Superintendent Dave Billips questions if the department should continue to replace analogue meters with the new smart meter technology which uses radio to transmit data, or stop the meter conversion program until the legislative process to adopt or reject the bill is complete.
“What happens if we complete the switch out and this bill is approved?” Billips said. “Do we have to go back and put the old meters back in?”
The Commission sent letters opposing the proposed bill to Rep. Donald Humason and state Sen. Michael R. Knapik, stating “The bill has several provisions that are of great concern to this commission.”
“The legislation would require us to provide notice to each account currently equipped with radio-read modules and give that customer the right to have us remove the smart meter-reading devices already installed,” the commissioners said in the letter.
“These requirements would place a significant burden in the Westfield Water Resource Department. Allowing customer to opt out of the AMI System negates many of the benefits that can be realized through installation of a smart meter.
“These benefits include benefits for the customer, with more frequent usage data, customers will be able to better manage and control their water usage and will benefit from immediate notifications of leaks on their property.
“Benefits to the (department) include a cost savings in eliminating manual meter reading and through reduction of unaccounted water. Benefits for the environment are that there will be more water left in the watershed due to decreased household use, elimination of water loss to leakage and theft. Reduction if water use will have a corresponding reduction in electricity and chemical demand, both in producing water and in treating wastewater.”
Some customers are opposed to the smart meters because of concern that the electromagnetic fields (EMF) created by the radio transmissions will have a negative health impact.
The commission said that there is no scientific evidence of adverse health effects of the smart meters and that EMF created by cell and cordless phones, television and microwave ovens is far greater that the intermittent radio transmission of the meters and that those devices are used in far greater proximity to the body.
Conway has testified that “the legal right to refuse a smart meter is “fundamentally an issue of the principle of choice.”
Conroy testified the bill grants “consumers choice when they want to opt-out of that effort for whatever reason, and there are all sorts of different studies being done at this time about the potentially physically damaging effect of the smart meters.”
“These are people’s homes. If you put yourself in the shoes of these homeowners who have sometimes been there 20, 30, 50 years – to suddenly feel like you are not safe in your own home because of something over which you had no choice – that’s a terrible feeling.” Conroy said.
The conflicting scientific evidence cited by both the commission and the bill sponsors will be at the center of the legislative debate.
