Gee, they'll "look" at the possibility of charging more for peak hours and have not decided either way? We know it is just a matter of time and they are simply giving themselves the excuse to avoid the issue until they can get past the question of making them mandatory for all of us. I do believe it is an invasion of privacy to see how many loads of laundry I am doing or when I use any appliance. Could they use this to increase what SAWS charges me for doing Laundry during the summer months or reading my water meter during daytime to conclude if I am watering the lawn? Whether they say "it will never happen" as far as turning off appliances: Will she still be there if they decide to change it? Has there ever been a case where a company changed its mind and justified it later? Even if they don't turn off appliances with smart chips, why should they even be able to access that information in the first place? That alone is a total invasion of Privacy. We need our city council to tell them to make it optional and to create privacy rules that forbid access to appliance data without written specific permission, not some change in service agreement they slip under the radar. If we own CPS, shouldn't we have a bigger say in the decision and focus on the WHOLE picture including down the road rather than let them try and sneak one thing past that allows them to change things without our permission later? "They have not decided if it will be Mandatory"? Why should they decide what their clients and OWNERS are mandated to do? They should decide safety and delivery, but not privacy or future abilities they would have from mandating something now. While I don't have a problem with smart meters, I DO have a problem with mandating them and also them charging peak rates when many there are many people who are at home for health reasons and HAVE to have the A/C on during the day, home school, work from home or work a night shift? Gee, you're out of luck too.

Smart Meters - something to be afraid of? http://www.squidoo.com/beware-of-smart-meters

And so the fear-mongering begins, and the conspiracy theorists crawl out from under their rocks again... smh...

Wind Energy is also to blame for smart meters. Wind Energy, which is as predictable as the wind (used to be a joke, now it's serious as a blackout), is squeezing out consistent generation like coal and nuclear in the market. Especially in the middle of the night, coal and nuclear can't recover their costs because wind is running without fuel and is even Obama_subsidized too. Think that's great right? Well when summer peak hits, wind typically sucks and now the only source left is natural gas. If it weren't for fracking, the grid would be collapsing, or costs would be 18 cents per kWh. The consequence is that local utilities like good ol' CPS, want to be able to shut you down when peak prices hit. Thank wind, trust me I know. My company is in the energy generation business.

How many people believe that allowing CPS to control the settings of appliances such as AC units will remain voluntary, raise your hand. How many people believe this wont lead to higher costs for power depending upon the time of day? (I feel sorry for you who bought electric vehicles, you will be stuck paying a premium if you charge during the day, that is if CPS lets you.) Anyone who thinks this is being done to help out the customer please contact me I have a bridge to sell you. This is about energy rationing, plain and simple. You will either cut your usage to escape confiscatory rates during peak hours or CPS will do it for you if they think demand is too high. And with power plants being decommissioned left and right due to the BO regime's efforts to bankrupt the coal industry this means less capacity. Get a clue, people.

well if you want to keep this open to a fair debate then people need to let the public utility commision know how they feel , i for one like to have control over my home and all that is in it. so yes i will be writing the utility commision and my congressman to see what options we have . i think it should be a matter of choice if you wish to have this installed or not not due to the whim of someone elses desire . i thought in america we had the right to choose

so when terroist knock out cps or get control of computers!! we r screwed!! anyway i have my gun, come and get my meter.

I had a smart meter installed a few months ago and am in the Home Manager program offered by CPS. I asked them to arrange a time to come and remove this equipment and have yet to have a call back from them. I still have not received an 'enrollment' package and when I have questions about the system they tell me to refer to the enrollment package. I was out of town for 10 days and had someone stay at my home to watch my pets. CPS had one of the 'conservation efforts' mentioned above but I had no idea these would even occur since I hadnt received the enrollment package. My housesitter called me approx 7 pm to say the house was close to 90 and since I was out of town was panicked that my AC has stopped functioning. I was anxious and didnt sleep well and then monitored the temperature via the web the entire next day and, lo and behold, another 'conservation effort' so then I was able to determine the previous day malfunction was due to the same type of event. CPS has my email - they send my bill every month - so why cant they send an alert that this conservation effort will take place so you can opt out well before it happens? The benefit is to be able to monitor online but if I have to check throughout the day to find out what CPS has planned for the day - it certainly is not beneficial. My previous thermostats were set and the temperature remained the same until I changed them...as it should be. I have no problem with mandatory conservation but randomly changing the temperature in my home I am not happy with, I find it very intrusive. Not to mention that getting my home back to the original temperature after the 'conservation effort' has my AC running continuously for hours on end and I can only assume I am using more energy getting back to my set temperature then it would be if it was maintaining the temperature to which it was originally set.

"meters violate his right to privacy because they're a form of electronic surveillance" and so are cell phones, smart tv's, your vehicle's computer etc. and, as far as health effects are concerned, it's the same scare tactic when cell phones first came out, microwaves, etc. You get more radiation from a day at the beach or your tanning appointment than these devices. Now, as far as CPS raising rates during peak hours, I think that it will happen eventually.

You are correct preexisting, and it was actually unintentional, I didn't know the original posts ever submitted. I apologize and asked to removed one of them.