To the Editor:
Re: "Smart meters will nab electricity thieves," Letters, Jan. 4.
What Mike Taylor says is far from the truth and he's just regurgitating what B.C. Hydro has been feeding the public, which everyone has been swallowing hook, line and sinker. You don't need a smart meter to tell you that the pot dealers are using the hydro illegally. It would show up in a spike on the hydro bill. If I were a pot grower, I wouldn't be stupid enough to use the electricity going through the meter. I'd run a separate line from the road to my greenhouse. More pot growers are probably caught by neighbours reporting them to the police than any other way.
The TV ads are saying B.C. Hydro need the smart meters to inform them if a customer's hydro is down. If my hydro is down, would I not phone them immediately? What they should have is a smart meter on the transformer and that would tell them the hydro is down in a certain area.
I've been using a smart meter for more than two years because I was one of the test homes in Vancouver. B.C. Hydro wants to install smart meters so it can introduce a two-tier pricing system. I have a fridge magnet that I received from B.C. Hydro showing "On Peak and Off Peak times." The on peak times will have a higher rate and I will bet that when they introduce the two rates they will be justifying this by telling you that to conserve energy. The majority of the public comes home from work between 4 p.m. and do their cooking and household chores before 9 p.m.-all on peak times, which means our monthly hydro bill will increase when this two-tier pricing comes into effect. B.C. Hydro is losing money so they need to increase their rates. What better way to do this than to have a two-tier rate system. They will also be laying off the meter readers for an additional savings.
Terrence Kong, Vancouver
