Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Smart meters to nip illegal practice in the bud


Recommended Posts

BC Hydro's new digital technology will be able to detect marijuana growing operations

 

One of British Columbia's biggest underground industries could find itself short-circuited by a BC Hydro technology upgrade.

 

Hydro is moving ahead with a plan to replace mechanical electricity meters with smart meters across the province that are expected to make it a lot tougher for indoor marijuana growers to conceal their operations.

 

Smart meters represent the first major upgrade on conventional analog electricity meters in a half century. Hydro last month issued a request for proposals for companies to bid on installation of new, digital meters as well as the accompanying hardware and software, to serve all of its customers by 2012.

 

The principal benefit of the upgrade is to allow Hydro to better manage its electrical grid.

 

For example, Hydro will receive instantaneous reports of blackouts rather than waiting for customers to phone them with the information.

 

However, Hydro is touting detection of electricity theft as a significant side benefit for its customers.

 

Electricity theft was estimated in 2006 to cost Hydro $30 million per year -- which would work out to at least $40 million with today's two-tier electricity rate -- equivalent to a one-percent rate hike.

 

"At the market value of [purchasing] new energy supply, the cost to our legitimate customers would be significantly more -- even if the total quantity of gigawatt hours stolen has not increased since 2006," said Cindy Verschoor, Hydro smart meter program communications leader, in an e-mail.

 

"The smart metering and infrastructure program will help to identify theft where and when it is occurring and mitigate impacts on legitimate ratepayers."

 

Illicit marijuana production in B.C. has been estimated to have an annual retail value of between $4 billion and $5 billion.

 

Conventional wisdom holds that residential-based grow operators have either tampered with their existing meters or rewired nearby distribution power lines in order to mask the large volume of power they need to run the lights that serve their indoor nurseries.

 

In a recent interview, a senior executive with a B.C.-based company that has already installed millions of smart meters for utilities around North America said that its workers immediately detect illegal electricity consumption when they attach the new meters to the outside of homes and commercial businesses.

 

It's a side-effect of the installation, Corix Utilities (U. S.) vice-president and general manager Kevin Meagher said.

 

"We are verifying first of all ... is the system is safe? Is that little box on the side of your house safe? Is it grounded? Are there the right voltages based on the [customers'] records and so forth? That's all part of the installation process. We are testing all of that," Meagher said.

 

"How we find these [illegal] things is that we will get a back-feed that tells me there is power coming from somewhere else on this premise through the system. That's usually an indicator that there is a grow house or something else on it."

 

Hydro won't divulge specific details on how smart meters will detect theft, but Verschoor acknowledged that the Crown corporation expects that tampered meters will be discovered by contractors during the initial installation process.

 

"While evidence of electricity theft will be reported to BC Hydro, the smart meter installers are not going to be conducting investigations or intruding on customer privacy," Verschoor said.

 

"In general, theft detection will involve accurately measuring how much electricity is going into an area [such as a neighbourhood] and that data will be compared to metered consumption from customers in the area.

 

"This is akin to a retail chain comparing how much inventory is delivered to each store by how many units are sold at the cash registers in that store."

 

She added that the new system will give Hydro better "visibility" of its grid.

 

"We can determine sources of energy loss from a variety of causes, including theft."

 

Discussion board participants on cannabis culture sites across the English-speaking world have been expressing a degree of paranoia about the new technology, with similar meter installations proceeding in many countries.

 

Advocates of legalizing marijuana, meanwhile, think the grow operations most likely to be detected by the new meter technology are family enterprises.

 

"Prohibition breeds creativity for getting around obstacles and law enforcement, so there will be ways for large-scale growers to go undetected," Jodie Emery said in an e-mail.

 

Emery's husband is Marc Emery, an outspoken advocate of pot legalization now serving five years in a U.S. penitentiary for a mail order business that shipped marijuana seeds from Canada to the United States.

 

"They can just get generators, or buy entire gas stations (as we've seen done in the past), or use new LED lighting technology, or grow smaller crops in more locations, which actually spreads the problem out and makes it harder to detect," Jodie Emery said.

 

"The most dangerous aspect of the smart meter program is that it means small-scale, mom-and-pop indoor gardens will be more likely to be shut down, whereas organized crime can afford the techniques and technology to avoid detection (in the ways I outlined above). So it puts more of the cannabis market into the hands of gangs, and out of small-scale personal gardeners.

 

"No matter what BC Hydro does with smart meters, grow ops will never go away unless cannabis prohibition ends."

 

ssimpson@vancouversun.com

 

Author: Scott Simpson

Date: 9 August 2010

Source: Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Sma...6236/story.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From reading about smart meters in other articles they can detect 18/6 and 12/12 regimes of elevated power use, which are typical of Cannabis growing. The system will flag such patterns if they're routine in day to day activity and of a duration indicative of a crop (i.e, greater than 60 days of 12/12). The information could then be automatically emailed onto the police.

 

Once the police have an address coupled with a flagged suspicion they can then do a roll by to check rego plates on cars for e.g. priors. If you have guests with records and they have their cars parked outside, that will aid in building the case of probable cause and beyond reasonable doubt. The cops can check the property from the street too, for air vents or waste, indicating a grow, like left over nute containers and spent media. They can also check the contents of one's bins if on the kerb. If a bin is on the kerb they can also dump all the contents into a flat bed ute and sift through it back at station. They will be looking for old nute containers, bags of stems and roots ect. A cop might even jump your fence to get a closer look at anything unusual or to hone in on a smell. The cop can later lie on how he attained the smell. Cops lie, that's their job. The cops are also equipped with thermal imagery and they would employ that too.

 

Seriously, if you have a grow op and the cops have even a bare suspicion it's busted. Smart meters are nightmares because they give the cops eyes where they didn't before. I'm aware too that there are some places in Oz already rolled out in smart meters. I truly doubt any grow op greater than 1000w would be running in them. Some people have argued that they could run two lights on two separate 12/12 regimes back to back to make it appear 24/0. I wouldn't risk it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From reading that article Orbit I think it targets more electricity theft than high power consumption. I also believe some Australian homes already have these in place!!

 

True resin ... they have been in use in OZ for a while by some power companies.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1406760.htm

 

http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2009/04/vic...lion-smart.html

 

http://yourdevelopment.org/factsheet/view/id/56

 

http://www.ena.asn.au/?tag=smart-meters

 

http://www.dtei.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pd...546/summary.PDF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a load of bullshit.

 

Smart meters will not detect electricity theft from people who tap off the upside of the meter.

This can only be detected by visual means of looking behind the power box.

 

As for monitoring a whole neighbourhood and comparing back to total billed. Another load of crap.

 

Bucket loads of losses from supply lines and transformers is not able to be measured accurately.

Nice scare story thou

 

As for monitoring 12 hour light cycles...That's another load of fucking bullshit!

 

Every time my fridge cycles on and off and my spa heater cycles on and off and my airconditioner cycles on and off

Most nearly everyone's power usage fluctuates way too much for that to work.

 

The only time it would work is if the premise has a grow and NOTHING else.

 

They must think everyone is a complete fucking idiot!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a load of bullshit.

 

Smart meters will not detect electricity theft from people who tap off the upside of the meter.

This can only be detected by visual means of looking behind the power box.

 

As for monitoring a whole neighbourhood and comparing back to total billed. Another load of crap.

 

Bucket loads of losses from supply lines and transformers is not able to be measured accurately.

Nice scare story thou

 

As for monitoring 12 hour light cycles...That's another load of fucking bullshit!

 

Every time my fridge cycles on and off and my spa heater cycles on and off and my airconditioner cycles on and off

Most nearly everyone's power usage fluctuates way too much for that to work.

 

The only time it would work is if the premise has a grow and NOTHING else.

 

[b]They must think everyone is a complete fucking idiot!!!!!!!!!!![/b]

 

 

All governments think the public are idiots and treat us accordingly.

The electricity co's don't give a shit how much power we use just so long as we pay for it.

How could they say you are growing if you use more power in off peak? You could be a shift worker. bah humbug!!!

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using the community in any way you agree to our Terms of Use and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.