Public comments on advanced meters heard by PUD

CHELAN – Finding an empty seat inside council chambers was challenging during the regular council meeting, Tuesday, March 13. Community attendance is not a rarity for the meetings, however on this night, there was a significant increase in attendance due to an educational presentation for new councilmembers and staff given by Chelan County PUD for the mayor and councilmembers. “What we are going to have,” said Mayor Mike Cooney, “is a dialogue, and we’re going to keep it a ‘smart’ dialogue,” he punned while explaining the expectations from the dialogue segment.
John Stoll, managing director of customer utilities for Chelan PUD, led listeners through an update on the advanced “smart” two-way meters to be installed on residences within the next two years.
“There’s lots of elements to these,” began Stoll, “that we find very attractive and we see benefits for our customers.” He explained that, due to the low energy cost in the area, there is a lot of power being used, as virtually every home and business in the area is electrically powered. The two-way advanced meters will increase reliability for customers as well, he expressed, “we strive for always being reliable in Chelan County,” he stated, “but there’s always room for improvement. Especially in restorations.” The two-way meters allow the PUD to see outages in near real-time, he expressed, allowing for quicker power restoration times for customers. The meters also improve safety with the ability to detect abnormal conditions, accuracy with increased meter-read accuracy and financially but assisting in the reduction of future cost pressures, he explained. “This has a positive return on investment,” he explained, “so this will help keep the rate pressure down, help keep the rates we have as low as possible.”
Customer benefits, as Stoll explained, include easy energy management, which provides customers the ability to understand what’s going on with their energy. “It’s very common,” he stated, “you may go from a bill of $50 one month, then turn around in the winter and it goes to $300, and customers want to know why. The ability to show things correlated to the temperature, correlated to their heating bills, really gives them some information it a quick time frame.”
“Issues that we’ve heard, there was some pretty vocal folks that were concerned on the health,” supplied Ray Potter with Chelan County PUD in response to community feedback, “it’s really important that everybody understands exactly what you’re talking about … we need to make sure that we’re all talking the same language.” He continued by explaining that Electromagnetic Field (EMF) is a “product of electricity,” then emphasizing, “there’s no way to get away from that … no matter what meter you use, they all emit the same amount of EMF, and the strength of that EMF is all relevant to the level of power that you’re using … when it comes to EMF, there’s no way around that without cutting out electricity”
Stoll, returning to the presentation, began discussing another voiced concern from the community, regarding the safety of the frequencies transmitted by the two-way meters. Smart meters have been compared to cell phones for some time, he explained, adding that, “15 minutes on your cell phone equates to standing about one foot in front of a smart meter for 375 years straight.” He then led into the concern that the meters would be radiating and emitting at all times. “Typically, I’ve heard from 45 seconds to two minutes a day is what they’re transmitting,” he said, “that’s quite a bit lower than a cell phone. There’s been lots of studies,” he added, “people need to come to their own conclusions.” Community member Robin Casal input her opinion on the presence of the EMF pulsing, “there’s going to be other houses around that will be pulsing around also, so one house could be pulsing at one time and another house could be pulsing at another time, so there will be, on the streets of Chelan, continuous pulsing.” Stoll, thanking Casal for her comment, explained that that’s information that can be pulled from studies as well. “I’m kind of a skeptic,” he stated, “so, I especially appreciate the comments we received from this group (referring to the Smart Meter Awareness Group).”
After the PUD’s presentation, the floor was opened up for community comment. Chelan resident and Smart Meter Awareness Group member Robin Casal was first to the podium. “They are not considering the accumulation factor,” she stated, referencing the comparison of a smart meter to a cell phone. “we cannot simply gloss over the fact that the continued and increased exposure is a different category.” Addressed the concern of the placement of the meters on schools, hospitals etc. “When are we going to say no to these radiating devices? Yes, they save time, but the cost is our health … the council is in fear of jeopardizing its relationship with the PUD,” she voiced, “but what about your sworn oath to protect your community.” Mayor Cooney, as well as City Attorney Quentin Batjer, replied to Casal, as well as other commentary from Awareness Group meters and their request for the city as a whole to opt out of the program. However, Cooney expressed and Batjer confirmed, that the PUD’s advanced meter placement is an issue between the provider (Chelan County PUD) and the customer (residences), not a city-wide contract. The City has the ability to opt out for individual businesses owned by the City, they explained, but does not have the ability to interfere in a provider-customer issue like the advanced meters.