The website http://smartgridawareness.org has reported on how companies consider the data that smart meters can generate to be a “goldmine.”
The story quotes Miles Keogh, director of grants and research at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners as saying:
“I think the data is going to be worth a lot more than the commodity that’s being consumed to generate the data,”
(Full story at this link: http://smartgridawareness.org/2015/12/31/smart-meters-generate-gold-mine-of-data/)
Smart meters and privacy in NZ
The NZ electricity industry doesn’t say much in public about smart meter data, but as www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz reported back in 2014, even at that time, two electricity companies (Genesis and its subsidiary EnergyOnline) claimed to own the data obtained by “smart meters” in their customers’ homes and to have the right to supply this data to “third parties”. (See this link for details: https://stopsmartmeters.org.nz/latest-news/is-your-smart-meter-spying-on-you/)
Perhaps more NZ companies are also taking this attitude now. If you value your privacy, check the terms and conditions in your electricity supply contract – and/or insist on a type of meter that simply measures the electricity you use and cannot collect or store data.
Editor’s note: Privacy reasons are not the only reasons why increasing numbers of New Zealanders are refusing smart meters; please read this link for more info: https://stopsmartmeters.org.nz/latest-news/why-people-are-saying-no-to-smart-meters/
If you are interested in the smart meter issue, please sign up for email updates at www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz
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