Gloucester supervisors received a pair of presentations regarding AMI Smart Meters during Tuesday’s monthly meeting at the colonial courthouse.

Mary Bauer of Virginians for Safe Technology gave the first presentation, speaking about the dangers of smart meters as a whole, not necessarily the meters that are being installed by Dominion throughout Gloucester County. Bauer said a lot of the issue with the smart meters revolves around “dirty electricity,” RF radiation, fire risks and security threats.

A big cause for concern from her presentation dealt with the harmful effects of high radio frequency levels. High RF levels, she said, can cause heart and sleep problems, headaches and other side effects to those exposed. According to her sources, smart meters can produce higher RF emissions than cell phones and unlike cell phones, she said smart meters are always on.

Another argument she made was that smart meters will increase the bills of customers. Bauer said the meters can cause spikes in the electricity because of “dirty electricity” or erratic spikes in energy traveling through a home’s power grid. These spikes, she claimed, can increase a person’s monthly bill.

Bauer said smart meters are a fire risk as studies have shown an increase in electrical fires that can be attributed to RF heating. She said the meter itself, as far as 25 feet away, can be heated to the point of a fire because of high RF levels. She said fires caused by RF heating are typically misidentified and require further review to determine that RF heating is indeed the cause.

Bauer also argued that these meters are easily hacked. Aside from a person shutting off the power completely from a home, the meters can collect data from a that home which can contain information about what electronics are used—which can tell Dominion or a hacker what a person does throughout their day.

Another big issue for Bauer is Dominion’s opt-out process and the meter that is installed for those opting out of the smart meter program. She argued that Dominion’s opt-out form is not easy to navigate and is not available to all residents as not everyone can qualify to opt out.

Bauer said the meters installed for those opting out is still a smart meter with the two-way RF communicating chip either removed or turned off. If the chip is only turned off, Dominion has the final say in whether it is actually deactivated. She argued consumers should have a safer alternative to a smart meter if they chose to opt out.

Dominion Energy External Affairs Manager Crystal Bright and Business Performance Consultant Kevin Barry discussed Dominion’s smart meter rollout program and benefits of the meters they are installing. Bright said Dominion starting installing smart meters in 2009 as a first-wave pilot program and in a second wave that lasted from 2009 to 2018. Currently, Dominion is in the final stage of the program which began in 2019.

The smart meters Dominion is installing work in a grid system that enables remote two-way communication with Dominion. The meters communicate to routers on street lights, which then transmit signals to Dominion.

The two-way communication allows faster outage detection and restoration, detailed energy usage that customers can access and remote-reading capabilities. This allows customers to track their power usage in real time from their phones.

Bright said the rollout includes a mailed postcard to let customers know of the change. The mailing of the postcard triggers the meter exchange order in the Dominion system. On the day of installation, a door-hanger is placed on the customer’s home to inform them of the change.

Criticism from Gloucester residents, including some board members, has been given to Dominion on the process of the installing program and how they have informed homeowners of the switch and installation process.

Board member Phillip Bazzani criticized Dominion after he claimed its representatives arrived unannounced at his house, and had a verbal conflict with his wife who was home when they started the installation process. He said his home never received any information or advance notice of the installation. When the contractor came, his wife was showering when she heard the noise of the installation taking place outside the bathroom window. She quickly dressed and met the contractor. He said his wife asked the contractor what right he had to do this unannounced and that the contractor replied in a hostile manner that he had every right to do so. Bright apologized for the incident and said she’d look into it.

Board vice chair Ashley Chriscoe said while he did receive the mailed postcard, he almost wasn’t able to stop the installation of the meter. He explained that both he and his wife work from home and when the contractor arrived, he and his wife were on business calls. The contractor knocked on his door and by the time Chriscoe answered the door, the contractor was on his way to make the switch, which would have cut off power and ended the couple’s business calls.

Chriscoe said Dominion needs to be more mindful of disruption it could cause to at-home workers. He said there needs to be a better process of informing neighborhoods when contractors may be coming through to make the switches.

Board chairman Christopher Hutson said his meter is located outside his business office, which is detached from his house. He said there was no door-hanger left after they had made the switch. He did find that the power was cut off during the switch, which shut off all of his equipment, leaving him needing to reboot his entire system.

Bright said in the conversations Dominion and VA4ST, they will discuss the company’s communication process and what improvements can be made in such regard.

Chriscoe also asked what happens to meters in the event of a fire. Barry explained that meters are removed from the scenes of fire for the safety of the firefighters. These meters are then recorded and if undamaged are eventually redeployed. Chriscoe asked if these meters ever catch fire, to which Barry said he had never heard of a fire starting because of the meters over the years he has worked with them.

Barry did note that fires can originate from the meter’s connection, which is not the responsibility of Dominion, rather the homeowner as typically Dominion does not own or have a hand in maintaining the connection point. A faulty connection can cause fire. He said there have been times where a meter overheats, but through the smart meter’s connection to Dominion, the utility is informed of the temperature spike and can send a crew to replace it in a timely fashion.

Bright also said the meters Dominion is installing produce lower RF levels than a TV remote, let alone a cell phone. This contradicts what Bauer said earlier in the meeting as data she presented showed that smart meters released far higher RF levels from a distance of three feet than cell phones. Bright said Dominion’s smart meters release RF levels at 100,000 times lower than the FCC limit.

Bright also said that in contrast with the information provided by Bauer, Dominion’s smart meters are not always on; rather, they transmit frequencies about 5 percent of the day. She also said these meters have been tested thoroughly and have shown no evidence to support any reported health side effects from them.

For more information on Dominion’s smart meter program, visit www.dominionenergy.com/SmartMeters and for more information on Virginians for Safe Technology go to www.VirginiansforSafeTechnology.org.