By P Gosselin on 23. April 2023
Large household electricity consumption devices like heat pumps, electric cars may be throttled or completely switched off by the grid operators.
Blackout News reports here how the German Bundestag has approved the law to accelerate the nationwide installation of smart meters. “The aim is to advance the digitalization of the transition to green energies.”
It will allow grid operators to “ration electricity by remotely throttling or completely shutting off power for large consumers such as heat pumps and charging devices for electric cars.”
The Bundestag decided this with a large majority last Thursday.
“By 2030, every household is to have a smart meter. These networked measuring devices for electricity automatically transmit consumption to the electricity providers,” reports Blackout News. “According to the government, these systems should help to use energy efficiently and cost-effectively and relieve the electricity grid.”
Large supply bottlenecks, demand overloads loom
With millions of heat pumps and electric cars coming on the market in the future, and coal and gas plants being shut down. supplying Germany’s electricity needs will become a formidable challenge.
Rationing likely
The president of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, warns of potential overload problems and that power utilities will need to be able to “temporarily reduce the amount of electricity drawn from the grid.”
Already plans for electricity rationing are to come into effect beginning 1 January 2024.
Experts like Manuel Lösch warns problems may arise if many households charge their electric vehicles and run their heat pumps at the same time. It will not be possible for everyone will not be able to charge up their vehicles and run their heat pumps in the evenings without causing grid overloads.
No alternatives
“In cases of grid overloads, the grid operator could remotely reduce the power of devices via the smart meters to prevent power cuts, as there are hardly any alternatives,” reports Blackout News. “The federal government announced that elaborate functions such as control and switching will gradually be enabled or made available after a warm-up phase via application updates on the smart meter gateways in cooperation with the back-end systems.”
This was one of the least talked about technology advances in Germany….ever. If you had suggested that energy rationing would take place….it would have dragged a bunch of questions up on how or why.
Soon, the slaves will have to pay for their own chains.
We are already.
Exactly. The populace are slaves to the tax farmers — governments.
Strangely, if you don’t pay taxes they restrict your freedom but provide clothing, food, shelter, entertainment and medical care without requiring any work — all paid for by the taxpayers.
Some slaves are more equal than other slaves. Especially the ones who vote the correct way.
On second thought, maybe they’ll just tie that smart meter into your social credit score. Great way to decrease the load.
Is it not a civil liberty for the person to decide what style of meter is used, because the purpose of the meter is to measure consumption for billing? I know nobody who has asked for a smart meter because it can be used to turn off their domestic supply. If the people do not want it, can the government enforce it? Geoff S
I have had several heated rows in-person—and one mild exchange here on WUWT—with people who disbelieve smart meters can even do “demand management” (that’s rationing, to you and me). In fact I have never met anyone in person who knows it.
The utility company is not your friend. Dale Vince is definitely not your friend.
Dale Vince donates to XR and JSO. Wonder why?
And they can also be switched to pre-pay so no energy until your pay up but first call is to pay off what standing charge you have accrued before you get any power.
AND pre pay eliminates the fear of the power company of shutting off power to a house and being sued for the food that rotted in the refrigerator or freezer and the sick person’s oxygen generator shutting off and them ending up dead.
You didn’t pay, it is YOUR fault, and by agreement, your power goes off. No legal consequences for the power company.
They can provide incentives rather than enforcement. For example, at wholesale level, Tomago smelter got $1852/MWh last July to reduce load. The retailers can aggregate their customers load reduction to garner similar payments. They would pass on some of that benefit to consumers.
Controllable load is a long-established practice in Australia. Queensland used ripple control relays at least as early as the 1960s on water heaters but may have been earlier.
If you are not able to make your own electricity then allowing the retailer to control your demand may reduce your bill to an affordable level.
Electricity prices will continue to ascend new highs as the penetration of WDGs increases. Allowing your load to be controlled is an opportunity to reduce costs.
Liddell #4 unit went cold permanently today. Price in NSW now $299/MWh. South Australia now $386/MWh but was minus $46/MWh. There is a lot of lunch time generating capacity so they need ways to shift demand to lunchtime. .
“can the government enforce it?”
YES
As most smart meters are a radio device they can be blocked with faraday cage . That protection renders the installation useless. But since you have not touched the meter that is lawful.
Nb:
you need to cover the back of the meter as well to completely block the signal
Loads of EMF RFID Shielding Fabric available on tinternet. faraday cage should be earthed.
Wouldn’t the provider then just shut off your supply completely, citing a “fault condition” such as “Meter Not Receiving / Sending Data”?
No because without radio, it reverts to a dumb meter & they cant send any switch off signal.
Over the air radio or radio frequencies imposed on the power line? Nearly 30 years ago, I worked on electric meters that sent in their readings on the power lines. That required an inexpensive extra part to bypass the RF around each transformer, but once the power company made that change, they had a pretty reliable communication channel with their meters that is not blocked by a faraday cage. All it takes to make that channel 2-way is to change the transmitter circuit they added to the meters to a transmitter-receiver. I can think of ways to block that signal, but they are more complicated than wrapping your meter in aluminum foil.
But remember this: whether it’s signaling through the power lines or over the air, this channel is 2-way. It not only sends commands to the meter, but also collects the readings from the meter. When the power company stops getting their meter readings, they’ll send someone to find out why, ASAP. They might just manually read the meter, remove your signal blocker, and add the service call to your bill – the first time. If the problems continue, next time they might come with a cop to arrest you for theft of service – or take the simpler solution of unplugging the meter and your power until you come to them to have it restored, at a high cost.
“The government” can write, and pass through parliament (/ congress / other equivalent …) whatever “crisis / emergency” laws they want.
This applies to laws in (nominal) democracies just as much as decrees issued by your friendly local dictator / autocrat.
– – – – –
My understanding is that the detailed specifications for “smart (electricity) meters” around the world vary, but they are always written by “the government (/ civil servants / bureaucrats / functionaries)”.
For example, some newer specifications call for two smart meters per home, with a separate one for the “BEV charger” circuit … because absolutely everyone can afford a separate garage and a Tesla X (or three) to put in it …
Every smart meter specification, whichever country you are in, includes a “1) Remote cut-off” line in the list of functionalities to be included.
Severe geomagnetic storm hit the planet during the night
http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/images/aphisto.png
Bugger !! Missed it.
Good pics from Wales, Cornwall, even south of France.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/photos-show-northern-lights-wales-26764482
https://spaceweather.com/
Don’t despair, might have another chance tonight if you get clear sky.
Smart meters will make possible not just how much electricity is consumed but by whom. Paid up party members may be ok. Not so much retired and other non-productive people. There are many ways to bring the world into sustainable balance. This is but one. People need to think before they vote. Before its too late.
yes very lovely but who do you vote for – they’ve all gone completely mad on this thing
good intentions, high ideals, impeccable virtue, political correctness now rule the world and perfectly nobody has the cojones to rock the boat
Well yes, somebody did but we see what happened and is still ongoing, the deep state went completely nuts.
(It looks like it’s happening here in the UK. Civil Servants are throwing the worst sort of cheap salacious scandalous mud they can at their elected masters ## and in the paranoia hysterical world we now live, that mud stinks and sticks.
## Raab and Braverman)
“and perfectly nobody has the cojones to rock the boat” That’s the one thing I just wish that someone, anyone, who has enough clout financially and socially, would do. Just one person or corporation would stand up and say “enough!” and make a hard-core rejection of this green nonsense. Perhaps if one started, others would follow.
Kind of like the way J.K. Rowling has stood up against the transgender madness….even though she has been relentlessly attacked, she has the financial standing and clout to be able to hold her position. Or the way Elon Musk has stood his ground and stood up to big social media. While those of lesser means would be cancelled off the face of the earth. We desperately need someone like that to stand up to the greens and go to battle for the ordinary people.
We had Trump here in the US, but sadly because of his personality, the enemies have been able to make enough counter attacks as to hobble him.
As the old saying goes – the world really does need a hero now!
Glenn Beck is Fed Up. This is a real rant!
https://twitter.com/RealMattCouch/status/1649537773580300288
He’s not alone… I’ve noticed that several of the commentators on FOX and even a few on other networks are finally starting to catch on to the Left’s inconsistencies. While Robert Conquest’s 2nd Law covers developing organizations it fails to mention that once an organization is predominantly liberal, they, i.e. the liberals, try to out-liberal each other. They eventually carry it to the point where no sane person can continue to follow without large quantities of Phenibut, Zoloft or Valium.
Well, Fox Deep Sixed Tucker Carlson, so does that mean Robert Conquests’s Third Law:
The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.
Disempowering political parties by replacing them with independents will bring sanity and democracy back to the people. Yes. It seems radical but if one considers the how’s, why’s, wherefores it is not. One should understand that every political party stands upon communist principles. That being – The suppression of individual rights and freedoms to bring more (illegitimate) power to the collective. The notion that one must support one Party (collective) in order to defeat the other is a mind trap.
At least here in the UK you can still refuse the installation of a smart meter.
My electric utility, (the German one) under pressure from Government actually rang me, to to add the the deluge of texts and emails they’d been sending.
I pushed her-on-the-phone as hard as I could and she admitted that ‘Full Functionality‘ wasn’t a part of the existing design of meters they were fitting.
Full Functionality meaning that they could (remotely) switch you off
But the very fact that they have a well understood name for it means that it’s surely coming
In a way they already can, via monstrosities known as ‘pre-payment meters‘ which they’ve been racing around, breaking into homes, to install if anyone falls behind with their monthly direct-debit bank payments.
Then: if the pre-payment meter runs out of credit, it switches you off.
Nice buck pass huh
Unfortunately those meters charged a premium price for the electricity that can through them, affecting the very worst subset of the population it could.
Uproar broke out and the brakes seem to have applied, for time being.
But all new homes being built now have to have two smart meters fitted
for the house/domestic usefor the intended electric carAnd the meter for the car can be remotely switched.
Further research is hereby needed – which circuit will the heat-pump be installed on – or will another smart meter be needed
edit to PS
Smart Meters were initially toted to cost £341 each and were going to save the cinsumers ‘£100’s per year’
At latest they are now well north of £1,000 each to instal
(Strangely, £340 is the quoted price to get one removed)
They want Smart Meters for the water utility and they are being talked at about £1,500 each per fitment
“No alternatives”
Twaddle.
Use coal.
This is a good thing. We need someone to win the race to the bottom quickly so that others can see how it works.
There would be some poetic justice in Germans being herded together, several families to one house, to keep warm during the winter. “Just following orders,” says the friendly official at the power company.
As for their vanity electric cars, they’ll make nice lawn ornaments. Good luck getting permission to charge one up once this really gets going.
Since they’re Germans, everything will be nicely documented, so as to leave no doubt what happened when politicians elsewhere start down this path.
I just wish someone could convince Trump not to run again. He’ll win the primary easily, but he’s such a polarizing figure that he’ll probably lose the general – even if the senile guy runs again. Last time he didn’t even need to leave his basement to beat Trump.
I’m hoping to see both parties nominate middle aged white heterosexual guys.
I don’t care who or what they nominate as long as they’re willing to look at the energy issue objectively, with an emphasis on the future rather than scaring the children to win votes.
Notice that the only UK candidate who talks like someone who’s genuinely interested in the world is a black woman whose parents, I think, immigrated from Nigeria.
Sometimes these middle-aged white heterosexual guys are the worst, because they have to parrot the politically correct on every issue or they’re going to get neutered. And not in a gentle, literal, affirming manner as you’d see on TikTok if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s going to be Keith Olbermann in a fright wig, carrying a light saber.
“Sometimes these middle-aged white heterosexual guys are the worst, because they have to parrot the politically correct on every issue or they’re going to get neutered.”
maybe but I suggest they’re less likely to be party line followers than those on the progressive side which includes most blacks, a high percent of women and the LGBT types- also, I find it hard to believe the top 2 contenders are older than me (73) since I know people older than me and they’re all dealing with health issues- I’d like to see much younger people- someone with the looks and charm and youth of JFK but on the conservative side of most issues- DeSantis is the one who comes closest- but I’m open to suggests- there must be others
So it starts finally. The destruction of the middle and lower classes’ standard of living is now in the open. You can’t say the Germans haven’t asked for it. The Brits, Australians, and Canadians are next.
Comfort verboten.
Can someone please explain how a smart meter, on the side of a house, can control an individual appliance, such as a heat pump?
All the new crap will connect to the smart meter network.
“No, smart meters do not use wi-fi – they use a bespoke secure data network”
For GB: https://www.smartenergygb.org/about-smart-meters/myth-busting-smart-meter-problems/smart-meter-and-wifi
How to register your “energy device” i.e. heat pump, etc. Also GB
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-energy-devices-in-homes-or-small-businesses-guidance-for-device-owners-and-installation-contractors/register-energy-devices-in-homes-or-small-businesses-guidance-for-device-owners-and-installation-contractors
Since you will need a qualified installer, all your “energy devices” will be on the “secure” “bespoke” smart meter network.
Yous guys in the GB are SCREWED.
BTW: 2 minutes of google search starting with “smart meter wi fi” got me to these links. Took much longer to do the reading and cut and paste.
And meanwhile China, India, Africa build a new coal-fired plant almost every week, dwarfing the carbon-zero efforts of Europe and the anglophone nations.
The sacrifice of the Germans is meaningless. How long will it take for them to realize this?
German realists should have seen this coming! Freezing winters ahead!
How hard is it to DIY rewire a line and short the breaker of the smart whatever?
Not hard if you’re comfortable working on hot wires at the full service voltage and hundreds of amps capacity. In other words, make certain mistakes and you are dead and smoking.
However, I think it would be very difficult to disable only the function of receiving and executing commands. You have either cut your house off from power, or you have also disabled the electronics that measure and report your consumption of power – that is, you are now a felon for stealing power.
I don’t know its done in your country, in France there is the breaker box outside the home, closed with a square key and trivially accessible. Changing the meter doesn’t involve any special tool, of course there is anti tamper on the meter itself, and possibly on the breaker box (often there is none).
So changing or even removing/bypassing the meter would never involve any hot wire unless you are doing it wrong.
markm has it right – the meter is on the service side, not the house side. You can’t cut the power. It’s insanely dangerous.
It’s already a rude shock for “wasteful” American tourists renting accommodations in Germany and forgetting to turn off the air when they are out and about. Now they can prosecute them with the evidence.
They are as stoopid as stoopid gets. They demand/force you to change to electric devices (heat pumps, EVs, etc.) then say you must have a smart (aka: control) meter so they can turn them down/off because they changed a reliable electricity supply into a pathetically unreliable one that can’t handle the demand. Stoopid! Who voted for these dimwits.