by K.T. Weaver, SkyVision Solutions
Background
Back about ten years ago, Illinois passed legislation for a “Smart Grid Advanced Metering Infrastructure Deployment Plan.” This legislation required ComEd to deploy advanced metering (“smart meters”) for all of its electric customers.
As opposition to smart meters grew for a variety of reasons, the utility company developed a program to allow customers to defer installation at a cost of $21.53 per month for manual reading of the meter. The ultimate goal was to coax all customers to eventually accept a smart meter or potentially face disconnection at some point down the road. In past filings with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), the “sunset date” for the deferral program was to be June 30, 2022.
Non-AMI Metering to Be Allowed Beyond June 30, 2022
There are about 5,000 customers within the ComEd service territory in Illinois that have continued to refuse smart meters and presumably are paying $21.53 per month for the privilege of maintaining an analog meter to measure electrical usage.
ComEd has received approval from the ICC to continue allowing those customers to keep their old meters indefinitely. It has been a matter of legal interpretation that a 100% compliance standard was not practical in terms of meeting the requirement that “all” customers receive a smart meter. Thus, ComEd has been judged to be in “compliance” with the statutory language of implementing an advanced metering infrastructure plan. Quoting from the ICC Order:
“Accordingly, ComEd believes that its best course of action is:
(1) to recognize that at the conclusion of the AMI meter deployment period there will remain a relatively small number of Rider NAM [Non-AMI Metering] participants;
(2) to accommodate customers’ participation in Rider NAM beyond the end of AMI deployment;
(3) to cap the number of such participants in order to preserve AMI mesh network performance;
(4) to continue to collect reasonable charges (as they may be updated from time to time) from the refusing customers as provided for in the tariff; and
(5) to continue to inform customers of the benefits of AMI, encourage acceptance of AMI meters, and phase out Rider NAM through the voluntary acceptance of AMI Meters.
ComEd’s planned approach is superior to ComEd being compelled to undertake burdensome and costly new or expanded efforts in an effort to move to a ‘perfect score’ of 100%. …
Requiring ComEd to engage in expanded or additional efforts to achieve AMI meter deployments at all the remaining locations by July 2022 would not be reasonable or beneficial from practical perspectives for customers or the utility. In so stating, the Commission is not finding or suggesting that customers can or should reject AMI meters.
Accordingly, the Commission concludes that ComEd will have achieved full compliance … if it has implemented the AMI Plan, as revised, without material deficiencies, through the end of the implementation period.”
Not Really a Formal Opt-Out Program
So going forward, what we have here is not really a formal opt-out program for smart meters at ComEd, but customers who have refused them up to this point can breathe a little easier that they will not be forced to convert to a smart meter after June 30, 2022.
In some of the documentation ComEd has available at the company website, I can see that ComEd has placed a “Participant Cap” on non-AMI metering at 5,500 customers within its service territory. This potentially allows for about 500 additional customers to seek non-AMI metering, but I see no real mechanism for this to happen other than pestering customer service personnel until they finally relent to your request and your understanding that you would pay something like an additional $21.53 per month going forward.
References and Background Information
1. Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) Order pertaining to ComEd Customer Smart Meter Refusals, available at: https://skyvisionsolutions.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/icc-order-on-smart-meter-refusals-nov-2020.pdf
2. “Illinois Commerce Commission Mistreats Consumers Refusing Smart Meters,” SkyVision Solutions Blog Article, October 2014, at https://smartgridawareness.org/2014/10/21/icc-mistreats-consumers-on-smart-meters/
3. “Chicago Suburb Formally Requests Permanent Smart Meter Refusal Option from ComEd,” SkyVision Solutions Blog Article, July 2016, at https://smartgridawareness.org/2016/07/10/chicago-suburb-formally-requests-smart-meter-permanent-refusal-option/
Smart Grid Awareness 
Hello, I am in Alabama and have information on how to reach the people who worked on the federal recovery act smart grid investment grant which said recipients must provide a free analog opt out meter to anyone who wants one. I cannot possibly do anything with that information here, but would like to give it to someone who could use it to take legal action. Any of the SGIG recipients should be providing a free analog opt out, but the document with that information was removed at the DOE website and in 2019 the DOE told the IT contractor FedConnect to delete their copy of it. I know how to reach the two men who worked on the project and who know about the opt out, but both still work for the gov’t and cannot help unless they are subpoenaed. The one who knows what we need is still a DOE safety contractor. I talked with a woman who works with him. I found them from other documents and their information in document properties.
I doubt what you say is true regarding the “federal recovery act” providing for free opt-out as I have studied all relevant documents thru the years. What many have tried to use to no avail is the language in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 where it states, “Each electric utility subject to subparagraph (A) shall provide each customer requesting a time-based rate with a time-based meter capable of enabling the utility and customer to offer and receive such rate, respectively.” So the logic would be that the Act only mentions smart metering for customers requesting them, and opposition groups have repeatedly tried to say that language prevents people from being forced to use a smart meter. All these years later, I am not aware of anyone being successful in lawsuits (or other proceedings) in an attempt to enforce this type of reading. But whatever information you have could be sent to the email address for this website skyvisionsolutions at astound.net.
I ran across this site, looking to see if anyone else in the Chicago area is still fighting against smart meters, I to live in Humboldt park, last year comed slapped a red sticker saying they will shut off my electric if I don’t comply, it got to the point I had to file a complaint with the citizens utility board, wich stopped the shut off process from what I understood, My mom is in her 80s, & has been battling not only breast cancer, but bone marrow lukemia, & has not wanted smart meters not only for the reason of the waves sum say it causes, but also sum the ones that have exploded, now we do have an old building, & our meter boxes are located in our enclosed porch,& my mom wouldn’t want problems, to make her situation worsen, so after a lot of back and fourth they said, turns out your analog meters aint out dated so we could keep using them, but this week, we had 2 red giant stickers put on our gates, saying they have no access to our meters, cause I guess they want to force us to comply yet again, my mom called today, & the way they put it, if we don’t comply, we will be shut off on or just after June 9th, now last year they were also trying to push something called a legacy meter on us, saying its not a smart meter, but when I talked to other electricians, said they never herd of it, & Edison said I have to replace my boxes to conform to said meters, wich is costly, & not in our budget, come said they would fix for free, but only if we comply, so can anyone give me advice on how to proceed this time, or is this just a losing battle to the machine…
In general, ComEd customers are entitled to maintain an analog meter at an extra cost of $21.53/mo (per blog articles posted at this site). A legacy meter is the usual term for old-fashion analog meters since utilities now consider them as ‘legacies’ of the past. That said, the utility must be able to access the equipment for service, inspection, or to be able to read the meter, and your comment seems to suggest possible problems with access by the utility due to ‘gates’ and location in an enclosed porch. ComEd should be willing to allow use of an analog meter provided you have agreed to the 21.53 /mo extra charge and allow access to the meter location by utility personnel. In addition to the issue of the meter itself, you seem to indicate the utility wants to change out the meter enclosure(s), that is, ‘boxes,’ to which the meter attaches, so at least part of the problem here is more than just having a smart meter vs. an analog meter. There are legitimate possible technical reasons for why the meter enclosure may need to be replaced or updated, particularly if the current meter enclosure has been in-place for several decades.
I’m finally responding back to what you said about legacy meter being what old analog meters are called, I believe it’s not, My Mom reached out to citizens utility board for help again, they transfered her to Illinois commerce commission, when she talked to a gentleman about our shutoff notice, & she said we don’t want, & have opt out SM, said they wanna put legacy meters in, He said, a legacy meter is a smart meter, & he’d stop shut off & look into it, then said, Comed would reach out to her, which they did, by saying all they wanna do is change our second flr meter, it’s malfunctioning, they said that last spring to. So I call bull, after help last spring from citizens board, ConEd said turns out your analog meters were not out dated, hence the bull, last year I had a technician here & he said my 2nd flr box was set up for a newer meter, legacy, but the other 2 were not. A short time later another ConEd tech, said they all need to be changed, to accommodate legacy, but when ConEd talked to my mom last week, he said, we just wanna change you 2nd flr meter, it’s malfunctioning, yeah right, I believe they just want in, to place a so called legacy/smart meter in, & then force us to comply with the others, at least this is my speculation, I guess I will find out soon, I’m waiting on my phn call, cause today, the guy from ICC called my mom & said you will not get an extension, & you must comply, or we will shut off your power, no respect for a woman of 83, who has multiple illnesses, waiting to have surgery soon, with no care to them, but to force there Gestapo type tactics on someone who opt out, pay the 21+ dollars per meter, which was our choice, but I guess not anymore, I thought we lived in a free America, but I guess we don’t , when an American senior citizen who fears not only from what she reads about them, besides the chances of exploding smart meters, which I do have photos of from an electrician that sent me them to show me his work. But I did notice off the bat why it blew, SmartMeter.. I guess we will find out shortly where we stand, no choice of ours, & possibly be in the dark..So to anyone else going through these tactics, I pray for you, I don’t think we our the last family trying to fight the fight, I hope someone has better luck..I think ours ran out.
also, currently in Illinois, the gas meter and the water meter are still AMI meter which is still smart meters, why gas smart meter and water smart meter cannot be allowd to change back to analog meters? I am so confused. Could someone explain to me ? thank you , english is my second language, so ….I do not understand quite well
Utility meters are controlled by different organizations, and they all have their own policies. For Nicor Gas, for example, I am not aware of any exceptions they have made for customers being able to keep analog meters. Water meters are generally controlled by the City (for city supplied water) and each City would have their own policies as they roll out smart-type meters. Some may allow people to keep analog meters and some not.
yes, my story is , for electricity meter I am still using analog meter; for my water meter which is very very far to my house, I have a very very long drive way and water meter is indeed in the street , even not in front of my house, so it is ok for me ; for my gas meter, yes, I am currently using AMI meter which is also kind of smart meter and i have contacted the gas company thousands of time, they insited this kind of gas meter barely has radiation so they finally came to pull my gas meter out from my basement and put in front of my house but they refused to allow me use the analog meter. Then I put a “Cornet ED88T Plus Tri Mode Meter Latest Version of The ED88T. EMF/RF Detector/Acoustic and Low Frequency Gaussmeter and Electric Field Meter with Soun” to test the radiation from the gas meter. I actually put almost the whole day to test, the final result was showing it seems they did not lie to me —-very very very low radiation, almost none. But I still put a smart meter cover on that. Gas company told me the gas meter is using battery and this battery can be used for at least 10 years which also means it has very very few radiation. Combing my test result , so far I want to say, it seems they did not lie to me. Maybe as they told me, every month only one day the gas company would drive a car nearby to collect the data—I mean only that day my gas meter would be activated once—maybe at that moment it would have big radiation lasting like maybe 10 seconds? I do not know. But again, I put my Cornet meter for almost the whole day and i also put aonther meter for the whole day to obesever the whole radiation , both are showing me inside my house almost zero radiation —-I put the Cornet agaist my window in my house to test —the other side of that window is my gas meter outside. So I am sharing my story here, hope it can relief a little bit about illnois gas meter worrying for some friends who is caring about health.
so sorry about my english, I do not quite understand this article. Could you explain a little bit to me? I am one of the people who is
currently using analog meter—I am living in Highland Park. I was worried I may be forced to use smart meter again after June of 2022,
But in June of 2022 I got a mail from comed to tell me I can continue using analog meter infinitely, which is a good thing ,right?
But I forgot to keep that mail, I may throw it away. I regret it so much. I should have kept that mail. So this night I wrote to Comed company customer service to request them to send me the same content mail again.
I encountered your website. But I failed to understand. It seems you are still worried about it, why? we are told we can keep traditional analog meter forever ,why you are still worried, also I found some comments it seems still many people worried, i am worried i failed to understand something I missed, so I am writing to you , could you explain why you are still worried?
It sounds like you initially refused a ComEd smart meter and are probably paying $21.53 per month to be able to do so. Consistent with the content of my article, it also appears ComEd notified you that you can keep the analog meter going forward. So yes, that is a good thing. Our concerns remain in a couple of different areas: 1) you will have to continue paying a monthly fee to maintain the same equipment which years ago cost you nothing (in terms of extra fees); and (2) other people who reluctantly switched to smart meters … because they were told they eventually would have no choice … may find it very difficult to get ComEd to come back and give them back an analog meter.
I am not happy to pay the extra $21.53, but compared to no choice and need to use smart meters, I think I can accept $21.53.
Hello, I have something urgent I want to contact you here and I also wish more people to know this. Did you remember some days ago I leave a comment here to tell current gas meter is AMR which means monthly gas company would send a vehicle to collect data in streets nearby so it also means current AMR gas meter is indeed less radiation—I keep constant test so I can prove this. But last Sunday I read an article, please see this link—- https://www.smart-energy.com/industry-sectors/smart-meters/illinois-regulators-approve-us-utilities-smart-meter-data-collaboration/; it is telling us that IL gas company wants to upgrade our current AMR gas meters into AMI gas meter—-AMI meter is absolutely the other name for smart meter. Gas company wants to complete this upgrade at the end of 2023. This morning I wrote email to someone who is working in gas company named Mark. He told me they just need to do the remote upgrade the soft ware and they do not need to come to our houses to do this software upgrading. Anyway at least I am convinced that our IL residents gas meter will be forced into AMI —-smart meter as well. I DO HOPE more people get to know it NOW, so we can contact gas company to refuse this upgrade. Like I said, IL electric company has already allowed us who are sensitive to radiation to use the traditional analog electricity meter FOREVER, why gas company does not permit us to exempt from those smart meter (they called it AMI meter), it is unfair!!!! I do not know how many people could review this website constantly, but at least it is a platform to educate and inform some people, so today I am leaving comment here.
Involuntary pulsed microwave radiation is really THE issue. RF is a class 2b possible carcinogen according to the WHO in 2011. Current scientists say new science would make it a carcinogen. Period.
Not everyone can biologically handle radiofrequency in their environment. Children, elderly and ill people should not be forced to have utility exposures in homes and at their properties. Period.
Wireless trashes human rights because by nature, it trespasses. Fiber/cable offer the best connection with NO trespass or harm. All the technical talk about “progress” means nothing in light of basic human rights.
Folks: Pup & Horse show here. ComEd admitted in the Chicago Tribune article of known issues. ComEd had a 3 yr rollout extension granted to come up with a solution. Looks like this is the solution. ComEd gets to keep their $Billions of Federal $$$$.
IMO There’re 4 basic main issues. I’ll expand on just 2.
1) Safety 2) Health 3) Liability 4) Constitutional Issues
1) Safety. Original meters had a surge arrestor for each single phase (2) connected to the GND ROD for safety as in if your home gets hit by lightning or a large power grid surge. Current flows in the path of least resistance thru the GND ROD. Smart meters DO NOT HAVE the ARRESTORS!
3) Vicarious Liability. Home catches on fire. You file a Homeowners Ins Claim. Due to NO Ins Co will underwrite the Liability of these UNSAFE Devices, Ins Co tells you to contact your Utility. Co. Utility Co says it’s not their equipment, “You’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing in your home that caused the fire.”
Poor homeowner now faced with dilemma. This is just a small list of issues.
For what it is worth, I still have an analog meter. I formally protested to Comed CEO when they started to charge me the refusal fee and made copies of every bill and check I sent them with the following statement stamped on them “INVOLUNTARY AND COERCED PAYMENT UNDER DURESS” if the fee is overturned some day. I like to believe customers will pay more with “smart” meters than I will with the fee added.
The issue with smart meters are the concealed circuit breakers hidden inside that the customer is NOT told about. This breaker, surrouded by a flamable plastic case has caused many fires due to arcing under load, as can be seen on Youtube. Also the interruption of supply due to hackers etc., will turn off freeezers and medical machines that may be in use. Get rid of those breakers, and there are no sensible other problems that are in anyway as serious.
David, you have selected one problem with the meters you think is “sensible”, you need to do more research, there is a long list of problems with these meters, obviously starting fires is probably the most serious, but don’t dismiss the others as being “not sensible”..
Hi Douglas, The “hidden from customer secret circuit breaker” is something that should be removed from ALL smart meters ASAP, due to fire risks from under a load arcing heat build up inside the flammable plastic casing. It’s not possible to prevent “the march of progress” towards computerised remote “auto billing”. So, it’s that “secret” internal breaker that REALLY worries me, as that directly threatens the SAFETY of my family, me, and the SAFETY of those that depend on using medical machinery at home, such as for kidney dialysis etc.. These breaker fire risks will greatly increase with future high demand currents for electric car charging AT NIGHT WHEN FIRES ARE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO KILL YOU & YOUR KIDS WHILE YOU SLEEP through smoke inhalation. If your smart meter is under the stairs, as it is in most UK housing, the fire danger is much more acute!!!! Perhaps we should bypass the secret breaker ourselves with a shunt, or spot weld the breaker so it cannot arc? With kind regards, David Hine.
Comment by Editor: By “secret circuit breaker,” I am not sure if you are referring to what many of us call the “remote disconnect.” On this topic I previously wrote an article: https://smartgridawareness.org/2016/08/25/how-the-smart-meter-remote-disconnect-can-cause-fires/. Regarding spot welding such a switch, etc., that would seem risky as well and is not recommended.