Website editor’s note: Below is an email from a website visitor, reporting on how Genesis finally agreed to remove the transmission chip from a “smart meter” installed without consent – but only after a formal complaint was made. According to this correspondent Genesis will now be requiring customers to agree to a “smart meter” (which Genesis Energy describes as an “advanced” meter) as part of its terms and conditions.
If any representatives of Genesis are reading this post and this is not in fact Genesis’s policy, please send an email through the Contact form and I will amend this post accordingly.
Thank you.
Email to www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz from a customer of Genesis Energy
Hi there
I discovered to my horror that Genesis Energy had installed a smart meter at my new property without my consent. On initially querying this the company spokesperson stated I could go to another company if I wished but Genesis would not be removing my meter. I then approached the Commissioner for Gas and Electricity and they intervened with a formal complaint. Several weeks later the smart meter has been disabled and from now on Genesis Energy have included in their terms and conditions for any customer wishing to be supplied by Genesis Energy that they are required to agree to allow us to install our metering equipment of choice.
See copy of email below…. A little win but thank you for your website which was a source of support and information for our family.
Email from Genesis Energy to customer
You are correct in your statement that smart meter installation is not mandatory. We have not communicated this. It is mandatory that all of our meters are within the new certification requirements by 2015, smart meter or not. It is Genesis Energy’s choice to utilise Advanced Meters for this purpose.
With the exception of your meter due to the concerns you have raised, we have included it in our terms and conditions for any customer wishing to be supplied by Genesis Energy that they are required to agree to allow us to install our metering equipment of choice. We exercise this right based on the fact that consumers can choose whom it is that they want to supply their power, even after the Advanced Meter is installed.
Advanced Meters do have the capability to feed back into the grid, however the software for this is not yet available. They were built with this very function in mind and are definitely not an attempt to make home generation of electricity more difficult, We have not yet implemented the software required but will be doing so in the near future. They will then be able to provide a better service to consumers who choose to do this as they record the electricity being generated and returned each half hour.
It is not possible for us or the meter owners to remotely change the digital reading, at all. Due to the strict regulations surrounding meter calibrationand measurement of electricity use this function was not built in to the meters.
Mechanical meters, however, are not locked at all…
[Website editor’s note: I have edited out part of this email which included a description of how to interfere with the operation of an analogue meter as this is potentially dangerous.]…
The security and safety of a mechanical meter is immensely lacking in comparison to the Advanced Meter when it comes to altering the readings.
Advanced Meters are sealed and have tampering sensors which will communicate any interruptions to the safety seal. Also, the usage is recorded every half hour and as such any unusual activity or unusual jumps in the amount used can be queried or examined by the consumer, in which case we can obtain the data if necessary to scrutinise it closely. We chose these meters to support greater transparency of power usage for our customers to better manage their costs.
I hope you find this information useful, and wish you the best for the future.
Kind regards
[Representative of Genesis Energy; Name withheld for privacy reasons.]
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